


Modern Royalty

by shoyousugar (orphan_account)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Angst, Cheating, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gay, Homophobia, Inappropriate Behavior, I’ll update tags as i go, LGBTQ Character, Lesbian, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Modern Royalty, Partying, Some Wholesome Stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 13:24:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20818001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/shoyousugar
Summary: “Edelgard; the head of the black eagles, heir to the Adrestia fashion line and social media sensation.“Dimitri; head of the blue lions, Edelgard’s stepbrother, heir to the Faerghus newspaper and model.“Claude; head of the golden deer, heir to the Leicester organisation and YouTube star.“These three are like modern royalty.”A college au, in which the three house leaders are like modern royalty and Byleth is their professor, who takes a little too much to do with the students.





	1. The Beginning

“Why’s Teach on the phone?” 

“Leave her alone, she’s talking to her dad.”

“Thanks for the info Leonie, that’s what I was fishing for.” Claude cracked his fingers and strolled to the front of the lecture hall, skipping and smiling the whole way. 

“What is he about to do?” Dimitri asked, leaning into Edelgard who he was sat next to. “Something stupid presumably...” Edelgard groaned, already knowing she would have to clean up the mess afterwards. 

“Ohhh, _Byleth~_” Claude sang, sliding on top of her empty desk. “May I take this seat-“

“Claude, go back to your seat so you and Hilda can mooch off of Marianne’s notes.” 

“MY _WIG_!” Claude screeched, pulling his hair as hard as he could, effectively pulling himself off of the desk and onto the floor. “**CLAUDE I’M ABOUT TO INTRODUCE SOMEONE, GO SIT DOWN!”** Byleth yelled, picking up Claude by the collar and shoving him towards the stairs. 

As Claude slumped back in his seat- a concerned Marianne staring over at him whilst Hilda leaned against her- the door swung open. In came a large burly man with a short, lean woman who sported dark green hair. 

“Students, this is my father Jeralt, _and_ my new assistant Sothis.” Byleth said in the most monotone voice she could muster. “Ten minute recess so I can get Sothis up to speed.” 

Every student stayed in their seats and proceeded to either go on their phones or turn around to talk to someone. 

She rolled her eyes and turned to her father and new assistant. “Teenagers these days... I’ll leave you two to it.” Jeralt said before quickly leaving before anyone could ask any favours of him. 

“So as you know, the students are divided into three groups-“ Byleth pointed towards Claude, who was currently harassing Marianne which was causing Hilda to flip him off. 

“That’s Claude, heir to the Leicester organisation, and also a YouTube star.” She said, before turning with Sothis to the other side of the room. Byleth pointed towards Dimitri and Edelgard, Edelgard was currently being held back by Dorothea.

“The blonde boy, Dimitri, is the heir to the famous Faerghus newspaper, he’s also a model even though he’s so shy.” She sighed, pondering how exactly _he_ was a model. 

“What about the girl flying off the handle?” Sothis questioned, quite interested in her. Byleth snapped her finger to get her own attention back. 

“That’s Edelgard, Dimitri’s stepsister, heir to the Adrestia fashion line, and social media sensation. Her and Dimitri have... _disagreements_ so to speak.” Byleth sighed again, thinking of how hard it was be to be their parents. 

“So I’m guessing they’re the head of the three groups or are you gonna keep me guessing-“

“Yes, right, sorry... Claude is the head of the golden deers, almost all of them excel in archery and gymnastics. Dimitri’s group, the blue lions, are spectacular at equestrianism and archery. Finally, Edelgard runs the black eagles, most are exceptional at fencing and magic.” 

Byleth inhaled, realising she hadn’t took a breath in a while from speaking. Sothis rolled her eyes and sat up on the table, dropping her phone to her side. “Jeez, what’s got you so wound up?” Sothis observed as Byleth stumbled over her words and feet. 

“It’s... overwhelming is all. I’m not sure how you’re gonna handle everybody.” Byleth said, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. “If it helps I’m already acquainted with Edelgard.” 

“How?” 

“I double parked by accident. Let’s just say she wasn’t happy.” Sothis laughed as if it was a joke. It was not. Byleth, knowing Edelgard, knew it was not a joke. The ‘imperial princess’ as she was nicknamed, was easily pissed off, especially with her road rage. 

Sothis pouted and jumped up off of the table. “You know I adore you, but I feel like you’re students are going to see you’re giving me ‘special treatment’.” She teased, flicking Byleth on the nose. 

“They’re students, they stalk me on social media, they would’ve found out anyway.” Byleth cringed along with Sothis, both knowing that it was true. 

They stared at each other for a small moment, enjoying the somehow peaceful and intimate moment. 

“**OH SHIT, SHE’S DATING THE PROFESSOR?!**” Caspar boomed from the back of the hall, causing Ferdinand to conk him over the head with his textbook. 

“The moment was nice while it lasted.” 

“Yup, let’s just get this over with.”

_____________________________________

Clashing and clanging of metal could be heard reverberating against the wooden walls of the training ground. The training ground was dimly lit and long, blue mats adorning the ground, and accompanied by seats for an audience to watch the training. 

Dorothea sat on one of those seats, cradling her head in her hands, her elbows resting on the banister in front of her. 

There was a sound of clanging again, and Dorothea’s eyes lit up at the sight of Edelgard- who was currently a hot, sweaty mess- smiling in glee as she finally landed a blow on the impregnable Jeralt. 

When Jeralt swung his blade back at her, Edelgard, the swift gymnast she was, cartwheeled to the side, kicking the mans blade from his hand. 

Dorothea gasped in complete awe. Edelgard then held her blade to Jeralt’s throat, her chest heaving, and a bright toothy smile on her face. 

“_Go Edie_!” Dorothea clapped, finally announcing her presence. Edelgards face lit up as she spun around to face Dorothea, still flashing her pearly whites. Strands of her hair clung to her face from the sweat, yet as disgusting as it sounded, she made it look attractive. 

“Dorothea, have you been there long?” She called out, mildly aware of Jeralt moving around behind her. “Long enough to see how amazing you are, as always.” Dorothea winked, teasing her friend. 

“Good job today kid, same time tomorrow?” Jeralt asked, taking the blade from the girl’s hand and earning a small nod in response to his question. “Dorothea, have you seen Sylvain? This is the hundredth time he’s skipped out on training.” Jeralt asked as he stored the blades on the wall. 

“Sorry, I can’t say that I have, although he’s more of a lover than a fighter.” Dorothea giggled as she picked up Edelgard’s rucksack for her. “You can say that again...” Edelgard laughed airily, wiping her face with one of the soft towels before throwing it around her neck. 

“So, why’ve you come to watch me train instead of running back to your dorm to watch the next episode of-“

“Before you finish that sentence, I promised I’d watch American horror story with you, also...” she trailed off with a mocking smirk. “What?” Edelgard said, her face sinking slightly. 

“Dimitri invited me to dinner tonight, as well as Mercedes-“

“I’m sorry Dorothea, but that’s a terrible idea-“

“Why?” Dorothea pouted, hiking Edelgard’s rucksack over her shoulder. “Can’t we just go have dinner... _alone_?” Edelgard said quietly, a slight blush dusting her cheeks. 

Dorothea smirked, and lifted her hand up, cupping the girl’s damp face, before leaning in for a short chaste kiss. “We can order takeout and you can take a shower, your skill with a blade comes at a price.” 

Edelgard smiled as brightly as she had before. “You know all the right things to say don’t you?” Edelgard said, her voice calm and smooth. “It’s like I can read your mind~.” Dorothea giggled, pressing another kiss to the girls forehead. 

Edelgard heard the sound of shuffling and shoes flying to the side behind her, before the sound of a sword unsheathing could be heard. “What do you want Ferdinand?” Edelgard groaned, knowing it was him. 

“Professor Jeritza offered to spar with me, if you would like to stay and watch my fantastic skills then- HEY!” He cut himself off, realising Edelgard and Dorothea were walking out the door. 

“Do you think he knows he’s being pretentious?” Dorothea asked, a tiny mocking smile on her face. 

“Who knows anymore, all I know is that I’m starving.” Edelgard shrugged and took Dorothea’s hand, guiding her through the hallway.

_____________________________________

“_**HIIIIILLLDAAAAAAA~**_” the sound of Claude’s booming voice sounded throughout the dorm room. Hilda lay on her bed, phone in hand and smiling from ear to ear at the sight of her friend. 

“_Hola amigo~_” Hilda said, standing up on her bed, recording Claude on her Snapchat in their typical fashion. “_Ooooo_, me gusta esto.” Claude winked, holding Hilda’s shoulder before she fell off of the bed. 

“**_JÓDETE LOREEENZZZ~_**” they sang, and that was the end of the short video that the world was free to watch... free to watch them saying ‘fuck you Lorenz’ in Spanish. 

“Anyways, where’s Marianne?” Claude asked, flopping onto Hilda’s bed and throwing his hands behind his head. Hilda shrugged lightly “She’s feeding the horses, why?” The pink haired girl questioned, sitting on the chair at her dressing table. 

“So have you asked her out yet?”

“No, I’m gonna wait till I’m old and dying then go, “_Marianne I love you_” then die peacefully.” 

“Or you could have a long fulfilling life of lesbianism and a satisfying sex life...” Claude curled his nose up, trying to figure out why his friend was being so stubborn. 

“Ok, kinda gross, but I just... don’t want to screw up the friendship, y’know.” Hilda said quietly, flicking her makeup brush back and forth in the air. “Well, let’s list the good things; Marianne is a angel.”

“She’s amazing to be around-“

“Surprisingly good conversationalist-“

“Insanely kind...” Hilda trailed off, seeing what Claude was doing. “Claude you’re not gonna hype me up so that I’ll ask her out, not when you avoid cheese man.” The girl pouted, leaning back in her chair. 

“Okay, cheese man is shy, and awkward, and into Mercedes.” Claude’s face morphed into a sudden look of realisation at that last sentence. “And she’s having dinner at his house tonight...” He dragged his tongue along his teeth, not entirely impressed with his own thoughts. 

“She’s his best friend, and his family are pretty homophobic, so you’ve still kinda got a chance.” She sighed and snatched her phone into her hand, almost immediately typing away. 

“Yeah... whatever, I have no time for cheese man-“

“No, you totally do, me and Marianne can cover and do a stream for you-“

“**I LOVE AND CHERISH YOU!**” Claude screeched as he bolted out of the door and down the hallway in less than a few seconds. Hilda rolled her eyes and closed her door over.

“Trying to make me bring up my feelings when he’s head over heels for some....” she cut herself short as her phone vibrated in her hand. 

**Marianne:** I’m taking care of the horses rn but u could stream down here, that might be fun

**Hilda:** totes c u in 5 

_____________________________________

Wind blew through Sylvains rugged mop of hair, a charming smile on his face and a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Roses were classy right? 

He leaned on the doorframe to the entrance of the lounge and stared straight ahead. Felix and Ingrid looked up at him, completely baffled, and completely pissed off. 

“What poor souls getting those?”

“I’ll gut you like a pig if you hurt whoever they’re for.” 

Sylvain cringed and stood up straight, his smile morphing into something resembling disgust. He genuinely feared for his own life at this point. He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his hair, regaining his confident smile he strolled forward. 

Ingrid watched as he walked towards her, before he got down on one knee and offered the flowers to her. “Dear Ingrid, would you accept the-“

“Cut the bullshit, what do you want?” She said sharply, folding her arms across her chest. Felix stood up and promptly left before he got dragged into whatever was going on. 

“_Oh thank god_, will you be my fake date?” He asked, getting up and sitting on the sofa next to her. Ingrid raised her eyebrows at him, silently asking for him to explain. 

“My dads hosting a gala and is gonna try ship me off with some girl for a business deal, if I bring a date he can’t do that.” He explained with the best pleading tone he could muster. 

“_Fine_, I’ll go with you, but at least buy a girl a drink first.” She giggled, leaning her face on her fist. “Or some dinner I’m presuming?” Sylvain chuckled, tossing the flowers into the bin at the other side of the room. 

“Yeah that’s what I was angling for, shall we?” Ingrid smirked, skipping ahead of him. Sylvain sighed happily, he might have some fun. 

_____________________________________

The deafening silence in Dimitri’s family dining room was... tragic to say the least. Although silence wasn’t the right word for it, as his father and Mercedes were making polite conversation about their church lives. 

Meanwhile his stepmother, did not look so pleased. He knew whenever he spoke she would ask him where Edelgard was, but he wasn’t willing to answer. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was scared it would put Edelgard in a precarious position. 

“-So you own your own church? I’ll have to visit sometime.” Mercedes smiled, her smile lightening the mood. “Yes, it’s quite divine, isn’t it Dimitri?”

**Dimitri:** el what should I say if ur mother asks about where u are?

“Dimitri?” 

**Edelgard:** say I’m studying or smfn idk 

“Ahem...Dimitri...?”

**Dimitri:** will she buy that? 

“**Dimitri!**” Lambert yelled, startling almost everyone at the table. Dimitri jumped in his seat and dropped his phone into his lap. 

“Yes, sorry father, the church is spectacular I’m just... checking up on an assignment.” Dimitri cleared his throat, his eyes nervously darting between his stepmother and his phone. 

“Sorry son, I forget how diligent you are in your studies.” He laughed, taking a fork full of whatever was left on his plate. “Dimitri’s actually quite clumsy, just yesterday when he was giving his presentation, he tripped over nothing and broke the remote.” Mercedes laughed. 

“Dimitri, where is my daughter?” His stepmother asked politely “She isn’t answering her phone, could you call her?” 

This was the last thing he wanted. He nervously picked his phone out of his lap, and began calling Edelgard. Mercedes gulped, knowing that this would be a disaster. 

She picked up.

“Dimitri, _please_ don’t tell me-“

“You’re mother wants to speak with you-“

“**_What_**?! _No_! Stall her, Dorothea could be back any minute I don’t want her to know anything!” Edelgard spluttered from the other side of the phone. Dimitri’s mind began racing, he had no idea what to do. 

With a flash of inspiration, Mercedes pulled her flip lighter out of her pocket (she kept it on her so she could light candles). She lit a tiny piece of his cardigan on fire, which he immediately panicked about and tossed his phone to the other side of the room. 

“**OH NO, DIMITRI!**” Mercedes bounced up and began pushing him away from the table, his cardigan still smouldering. 

“_Quick go, go!_” She whispered, picking up his-surprisingly not smashed-phone as they sprinted out of the house. 

Lambert and Patricia sat still at the dining table, completely confused as to what just happened. 

“That girl will do anything to avoid me...” Patricia huffed, throwing her napkin over her plate out of anger. 

“Yes she is...” Lambert glanced down at his phone. 

**Edelgard:** sorry I couldn’t make it, having dinner with a friend

“She’s trying her best.” He smiled half heartedly. 

_____________________________________

Marianne and Hilda laughed as Hilda tried to hop on top of one the horses, almost unable to from laughter. Marianne grabbed her hand, helping her up onto the horse. 

“God damn horse, who even requested this?” Hilda laughed, staring over at her camera that was live-streaming them to millions of people. 

Three million people caught Marianne’s soft gaze and smile directed at Hilda; three million people who weren’t Hilda saw. 

“Leave Aries alone, he’s beautiful, although.... he smells terrible... maybe that’s you....” Marianne said, causing Hilda to swing her legs to one side and hop off of the horse. “Jump up there, and then you’ll see how bad he smells.” Hilda exclaimed. 

The blue haired girl rolled her eyes and swiftly hopped onto the horse. “Sorry Aries, did I hurt you?” Marianne said softly, stroking the horses mane. Three million people saw Hilda’s loving smile directed at Marianne; three million people who weren’t Marianne saw. 

“Oh I see what you mean, he smells awful.” The girl atop the horse cringed. “See I told you, I smell amazing.” Hilda bragged. 

“If I jump down will you catch me?”

“Marianne wait-“

Marianne jumped off of the horse, Hilda catching her in her arms with her surprising strength. Marianne giggled excitedly and blushed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re _so_ much work.” Hilda sighed, hiking Marianne up into her arms a little more. 

There was a soft blush on her face that Marianne couldn’t quite see, but she must’ve knew it was there. “You can put me down now...” Marianne said, biting back a giggle.

“O-Oh, _yeah_, sorry.” Hilda spluttered, putting Marianne down on the ground. The two laughed awkwardly and stood in a uncomfortable silence. 

And as if on cue, Claude came sprinting towards them, backflipping into view of the camera. “Cheese mans back and he invited me to the Gautier gala, are you guys coming with me?” He shot his best shit eating grin and finger guns at them. 

“Sounds fun.” They said in unison, both girls now smiling at how in sync they were. 

“Cool, well what are we waiting for? Let’s go get outfits!” Claude said excitedly, shutting off the live stream and bolting ahead of the two girls. 

They both sighed and smiled as they jogged after him. 

_____________________________________

“Byleth... what is this.” Sothis waved her finger in a circle at whatever was in front of her. 

In front of her was the kitchen countertop that coupled as a bar. On top of it was two dinner plates with a cable lit in the centre. “I made an effort, _so this is my effort_.” Byleth said dryly, laying the cutlery down next to the plates.

“Yes I know but... it’s very unlike you.” Sothis blushed, taking in the dear sight. 

“Please just say you like it and stop torturing me.” Byleth laugher airily, sitting down on one of the bar stools. 

“I do like it... it’s just that, you’re more of a ‘quick let’s eat so we have time to do other things’ kinda gal.” She leaned against the sofa, her hands wandering onto her own thighs. 

“Well... yeah but I thought it would be nice, a day full of Claude’s and chaos can be a little too much.” 

“Yeah but since when does anything get the better of you or me?” 

“Since working together, coming home together and sleeping together-“

“Oh I see, the students aren’t the problem, it’s the fact that we’re gonna be spending more time together.” 

“That’s not-“

“I’m gonna go to bed, I’ve already ate.” Sothis stormed off into their bedroom. Although, living in a one bedroom apartment doesn’t leave a lot of room apart, so it’s not as if she’s going to be very far away. 

“Sothis-“

“No, I said no, no means no.” 

“She’s such a fucking baby...” Byleth muttered quietly. She picked up both plates and emptied them into the bin, all of the work she’d done all for naught.

Her phone buzzed on the countertop. 

**Mercedes:** thx for the help professor, could I thank you with some coffee?

A tempting request. But one that should wait for tomorrow. 


	2. Football Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Football games, flirting and grand gestures, that’s what this is all about.

Dimitri giddily paced back and forth across his fathers apartment. His father and stepmother had left the weekend, wanting a weekend away to ‘relax’. 

Relax meant that Edelgard had said or did something questionable to annoy Patricia, which wasn’t unusual at this point. 

But that was okay, now he got to be as geeky as he wanted, especially when Dorothea was around. When Dorothea was staying over, Edelgard was a completely different person. She was kind and warm hearted; opposed to her normal judgemental self. 

“Morning ‘Mitri!” He heard Dorothea call out from the stairway, her hair disheveled yet still gorgeous. Behind her was Edelgard, who smiled softly at him and scratched her neck. 

“What’s got you so happy?” Dorothea laughed, gesturing to the goofy grin on Dimitri’s face. “Apologies if I look silly, but I have a football game today.” He said, genuine excitement lighting up his features. 

“Oh yeah, you’re the captain now, I’ll come watch the game.” Edelgard said, a genuine smile on her face. Dimitri furrowed his brow in complete confusion. “Who are you and what have you done with Edelgard?” Dimitri laughed. 

“My life improves when my mother isn’t around, you know this.” Edelgard said with a light giggle. Dorothea looked at Dimitri and rolled her eyes before walking over to Edelgard, wrapping her arms around the shorter girls waist and resting her head on her shoulder. 

“What time’s your game at?” Dorothea asked, swaying back and forth with the shorter girl. “It’s tonight at six, it’s the lions versus the deers, so me against Claude.” 

“Ah, so you against your crush-“

“E-Edel, t-that’s-“

“That’s pretty cute, I didn’t know you were into guys Dimitri.” Dorothea smiled cutely, accepting a chaste kiss from Edelgard (their PDA was unmatched). 

“Yes, well my stepmother is...” he trailed off, now sharing a worried glance with Edelgard. “She’s.... what?” Dorothea chuckled nervously,looking between her girlfriend and her stepbrother. 

“She’s um... homophobic, so it’s... hard, to say the least.” Dimitri cleared his throat, and awkwardly shuffled his feet. Dorothea looked at Edelgard with a distraught look in her eye, the latter folding her arms and staring at the ground. 

“I’m gonna... go get changed.” Dimitri said, quickly storming off to his bedroom to escape the awkward atmosphere. 

“You could’ve told me about that.... all this time I thought you were ashamed-“

“I could never be ashamed of you.” Edelgard quickly said, placing her hands reassuringly on Dorothea’s shoulders before sliding them down her arms. “It’s just... it’s hard to tell you’re mom that you’re gay and dating someone when-“

“Don’t worry Edie, I understand, it’s okay.” Dorothea smiled softly, dipping her head down to kiss Edelgard on the lips. “But you could always bring me to dinner and say I’m just a friend.” The brunette winked, giggling childishly. 

“How can I make it up to you?” Edelgard said, her lips ghosting over Dorothea‘s jawline. Dorothea exhaled, running her hand through Edelgard’s hair. “Dinner and Dimitri’s football game sounds good, but for now... I can think of a _few things~_” she smiled, involuntarily bucking her hips against Edelgard. 

Edelgard laughed giddily and lifted the other girl up by the thighs, placing her on the countertop, and drawing an excited laugh from Dorothea. “I _love_ when you do stuff like that.” Dorothea breathed, her words being replaced by the sound of lips smacking off of each other. 

“You have a _bedroom_ Edelgard-“

“Dimitri don’t spoil it.” 

“Okay...” he quietly left, leaving Edelgard the freedom of a empty household, in which she was free to yank Dorothea‘s shorts off, for anyone to see if they walked through the front door. 

_____________________________________

“**CLAUDE! **_**CLAAUUDE!**_” A loud voice boomed through the door. 

Claude tossed and turned, not fully aware of where he was or what he was meant to be doing. “_**CLAUDE,**_ **OPEN THE DOOR**.” The voice yelled again, this time battering on the door. 

The boy reluctantly rolled out of bed and staggered towards the door, lazily pulling it open. Lorenz stood proudly, his body fastened into the tightest football uniform he could’ve possibly found. 

“You’re late to training! We need to go. **NOW!**” Lorenz demanded, stamping his foot impatiently. Claude rolled his eyes and threw on whatever he could grab nearby, he would have the chance to change downstairs anyway. 

He felt blessed when he entered the changing rooms, changing into a fresh uncomfortable uniform was the highlight of his day. As he put on his elbow pads and gloves, he longed for the naked feeling of air against his skin. 

“C-Claude?” A meek voice spoke from the doorway. Claude rolled his eyes as he finished tying his shoelaces. He dreaded the game later, it would mean going up against cheese man, which was both exciting and terrifying. Yet somehow this sudden shrill voice had annoyed him. Strange.

Claude looked up to see Ignatz, his sports goggles securing his eyesight and clutching his stick. “Hilda said she’s been calling you and is asking if she can come in.” Ignatz said politely. 

Claude nodded quickly, not entirely processing anything that he’d said other than the word ‘Hilda’. With his approval, Ignatz left and was quickly replaced by the pink haired diva sprinting through the door, phone in hand. 

“What’s u-“

“So you know how we did a stream last night?!” Hilda screeched, her expression one of both excitement and horror. “_Yes_?” Claude answered, not quite sure what she meant. 

Hilda flopped onto the bench next to him and showed him her phone. She began to replay a small part of the stream where she and Marianne were ‘_horsing around_’. It was clear that the two of them were staring at each other in a more than platonic way.

“I love how the comments have figured it out for you, when they say ‘_Hilda ask her out_’ it seems _oh so simple_.” He sang, scrolling through the comment section. 

“I’m dead, just bury me now, there’s no way I can go on living without my merriment Marianne?” Hilda sighed and fell back against the wall in the most dramatic manner she could come up with. 

“It’s too bad I’ve got this game, I could’ve helped you with some big grand gesture, but instead I’m gonna be on the big grand screen...” 

“Wait that’s it!” Hilda yelled, bouncing up off of the bench with a gleeful look on her face. Claude raised an eyebrow at him and leaned back against the wall nonchalantly. “What’s ‘_it_’?” He said, hanging on her every word. 

“Grand gesture, grand screen, _Marianne_!” 

“Seems pretty grand but what does it mean?” Claude laughed nervously, not sure that he was following her words. Hilda huffed and rolled her eyes before retaining her composure. 

“Grand gesture _plus_ grand screen, _equals Marianne-_“

“_OH!_ Grand gesture on the grand screen-“

“_MARIANNE!” “MARIANNE!_”

Claude bounced up and the two of them smiled happily at each other as they came to this conclusion in unison. 

“And if you do it during the game-“

“You don’t need to face off against cheese man-“

“Hilda you’re a genius!” Claude yelled excitedly, completely overwhelmed with happiness for them both. 

“Sometimes my big fat brain just gets going and gets me some amazing ideas.” Hilda bragged, not a ounce of self-awareness present in her tone. 

“God, this is gonna be so amazing...” Hilda breathed, hands on hips, looking proud and confident in herself. 

“**CLAUDE WE’RE-**“

“We’re having **A MOMENT, _LORENZ_**!” Claude barked. 

“Yeah **_LORENZ_**, learn to read a goddamn room!” 

_____________________________________

Unlike the golden deers, the blue lions were actually training. The sound of a leather ball flying and smacking against hands could be heard, along with the faint sound of shoes stomping against the grass and Dimitri’s demanding voice. 

Felix rolled his eyes as he passed to Ashe for what felt like the hundredth time (and probably was the hundredth time), and Ashe caught the ball with the most enthusiastic expression. 

Ashe then threw the ball to Sylvain, who began sprinting to the goal, only to be tackled by Dedue with ease. 

Sylvain snarled and snatched his helmet off of his head, dropping it to the ground. He began to storm away to the bleachers in a huff, everyone staring at him as he went. 

“Sylvain, don’t take too long-“

“It’s bullshit, why do I have to go up against Dedue?! He’s so fucking good!” Sylvain yelled over at Dimitri from his spot on the bleachers. Dedue furrowed brow and tried to figure out whether he should take Sylvain’s words as a compliment or an insult. 

“Sylvain stop being a prick-“

“Felix, that’s not helping.” Dimitri barked across the field. Ashe looked between his teammates then back at the rest of the team across the field. The main conflict was between Sylvain, Dimitri and Felix.... hmmmm...

Just then he noticed a flash of ginger and blonde entering above the bleachers attached to the side of the school. Perfect. 

“Ingrid, Annette! Have you came to watch us play?” Ashe boomed, knowing everyone would hear. “Yeah, I want to see if Felix is as good as he claims to be.” Annette yelled and waved down at Felix. Ingrid flashed her eyebrows as if to say ‘ditto’. 

Felix’s eyes lit up at the sign of Annette, and a sudden motivation to show off began to flare up. Sylvain bounced up, as to not look as if he was benched, and began to plod back onto the field. 

“What’re we standing around for? Sylvain get the ball and let’s get a move on!” Felix yelled, suddenly moving around as if he was extremely into the game. Ashe and Dimitri stuck a thumbs up to each other and went back to playing the game. 

Sylvain tossed the ball all the way back down to one miscellaneous player. It then got passed from person to person, avoiding each tackle, before landing in Felix’s hands. 

He grinned to himself, knowing what he was about to do would show up everyone else on the field. 

Felix began sprinting down the field, avoiding every tackle and ignoring every opportunity to pass. It was the fastest he’d ever ran in his life, and it was invigorating. 

However, he now noticed Dedue, running towards him and this looked like the end of his run. He braced himself for the impact... but it never came. Instead there was a loud thud that came from Dedue’s direction. 

He looked over as he continued to run, only to see that Sylvain had tackled Dedue to the ground and was grinning mockingly at him.Felix smirked back and ran, getting to the goal within moments. 

“**WOOOO~ GO FELIX!**” Annette yelled from the stands, a light pink blush spread across her cheeks as she smiled. Ingrid stood along with her, clapping her hands in the air with a joyful smile. 

Sylvain rolled his shoulders as he stood up, outstretching his hand for Dedue to grip onto. Although he began to regret it as he thought the strength of the other mans hand would break his own. 

The red haired boy looked over at Felix and smiled at Felix’s happy expression. “You sure are happy to be showing off.” He laughed, his laugh being echoed by Dedue. 

Felix flinched and forced a frown as he turned to face Sylvain. “Shut up... thanks by the way.” Felix smiled, unable to keep his scowl forever. 

Dimitri shook his head and placed his hands on his hips. “If I knew it would only take sitting those two on the stands to get them up and moving, I would’ve done that months ago.” The blonde sighed, a childish pout on his face. 

“They’re very easily persuaded if you know how to push the right buttons.” Ashe smiled, taking in the view of Sylvain saying something that’s making Felix walk over to him with a mad blush and scowl. 

“This’ll me an easy match...”

_____________________________________

“I don’t understand why I have to do this...”

“Because we said we’d help set up.” 

“_Noooo~_ you said that you would help set up, I never agreed to anything.” Sothis huffed, pouting and turning away but still holding onto the ladders so they wouldn’t fall. 

“Well I thought it would be a good excuse to do something together that isn’t lying on the sofa.” Byleth sighed, hammering in the final nail that would hold up the golden deer banner. 

“But I like lying on the sofa, it’s the best place to annoy you.” Sothis smirked and stepped back from the ladders, allowing Byleth to climb down. Byleth sighed and folded the ladders, setting them against the wall. 

“We can go out for dinner after the match-“

“Can’t, I’m going for dinner with Rhea, do you-“

“No I’m sorry, you’re sister has a weird obsession with me and it’s uncomfortable.” Byleth shivered at the thought of Rhea, scanning her at every second.

“You’re right... late night movie?” Sothis asked, throwing her arms around Byleth’s neck and smiling as innocently as possible. Byleth smiled and dipped her head down, kissing her slowly. 

“Not to burst your bubble but I’m noticing Hilda and Claude talking and I’m scared they’re up to something.” Sothis giggled against Byleth’s lips. Byleth shrugged and leaned in to kiss her again.

“It’s fine, they’ll just have to take it up with a Rhea, I’m not getting involved.” Byleth giggled and rested her hands on her girlfriends waist. “Besides, whatever they’re planning will be fun.” She said. 

Sothis pulled back and rested her forehead against Byleth’s. “We should make sure to get seats near the back so I-“ she squeezed Byleth’s ass, causing her to flinch “-can do this without anyone seeing.” Sothis giggled. 

“Or you could skip dinner and you could do that for as long as you want.” Byleth said, resisting the urge to return the gesture back at her. 

“**TEACH! WATCH OUR NEXT PLAY-**“

“They ruin everything...” Sothis sighed and backed away from ‘teach’, deciding to instead grab the ladders and take them inside. 

_____________________________________

**1 Hour Later**

The stands were quickly filling up with bystanders. Everyone from every class was there, along with family members and teachers alike. 

Two of those people, who had the fortune of sitting in the back row, were Edelgard and Dorothea. 

Edelgard placed her chin on her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. She watched as Dorothea typed away on her phone, effectively ignoring Edelgard altogether. Which annoyed her, because Edelgard always wanted Dorothea’s full attention. 

“You’ve been quiet for a while, is something wrong?” Edelgard asked, a small reassuring smile on her face. “No, not really...” Dorothea said in a low quiet voice. 

Edelgard rolled her eyes. It was time to play one of her backwards mind games that led to hugs and kisses, little affections sprinkled everywhere. “So there is something wrong-“

“Edie, when I finish texting Hilda, I’ll tell you all about what’s on my mind.”

“But you texting Hilda could last for hours.” Edelgard whined, throwing her head onto Dorothea’s shoulder. Dorothea giggled and hit send before locking her phone. “Not today it won’t...” She said blissfully. She turned to face Edelgard, who sat up and off of her shoulder. 

“Why didn’t you tell me your mom was homophobic?” Dorothea asked, a light smile on her face and one eyebrow raised. “Because, I thought it might have scared you off, so I didn’t bring it up.” Edelgard said, a guilty look on her face.

“Of course not, it’s just a shame for you. It just makes sense now, that’s all...”

“I’m sorry-“

“Don’t be, but just don’t feel like you should need to hide stuff from me.” Dorothea winked and reached her hand out to intertwine it with Edelgard’s. Dorothea smiled and placed a gentle kiss on Edelgard’s lips before throwing herself onto her shoulder.

“When does this start? I’m starving-“

“We _just_ ate.”

“Yeah but I’m starving.” The two giggled and shared a slow passionate kiss. Dorothea giggled again as she rested her forehead against Edelgard’s. Edelgard gulped “Dorothea I-“ before she finished her sentence, she noticed a familiar face behind Dorothea. 

“Hubert? Since when do you come to these kind of things.” Edelgard said, almost in awe that he was here. Hubert shrugged “Ferdinand persuaded me that it was a good idea.” 

“How convenient that there’s two spare seats right here, one for you and one for... Ferdie.” Dorothea tried to suppress her cringe. “Since when are you friends with Ferdinand?” Edelgard questioned, a genuinely confused expression upon her face. 

“We take magic classes together.” Hubert said dryly and sat down in the seat next to Edelgard. Dorothea and Edelgard raised an eyebrow at each other, this was a strange situation indeed. 

“So where is Ferdie?” Dorothea asked, watched as Hubert turned up the collar of his trench coat. “He went to get something to eat from one of the food stands... Jesus it’s freezing.” He complained, stuffing his hands in his pockets. 

“But it’s-“ Dorothea started, only to stop when she saw Edelgard shaking her head at her. “Just don’t question him, he’s an actual cryptid.” Edelgard said quietly. Dorothea giggled at her and before nuzzling back into Edelgard’s shoulder. 

When her phone appeared in her hand, Edelgard knew a picture was about to be took. In the back of her mind was what she almost said to Dorothea, but she decided to wait for the right moment. 

_____________________________________

Drums banged and people cheered as the two teams began to walk out onto the field. Each one of them carried their helmets under their arms and looked pretty proud as they did so. Most of them were unnamable, but some were well known around the academy. 

The women cheered as Sylvain walked out. He grinned widely and waved to them. He caught Ingrid and Annette standing at the front and decided it would be nice of him to say something. 

“Make sure not to take your eyes off me, _I’ll be trying my best for you~_” He cooed and winked at Ingrid, gaining many looks towards the blonde girl. Ingrid blushed and chuckled “I would’ve hoped that you were gonna try your best anyway.” 

Behind Sylvain was Dimitri, ignoring Sylvain’s antics and speaking freely with Claude. “Aren’t you at all nervous?” Dimitri asked, bewildered by Claude’s carefree attitude. 

“Not really, it’s just a game.” Claude shrugged and his eyes widened in a sudden realisation. “Hold on, I need to... discuss tactics.” Claude ran forward and over to Raphael. 

“Hey, when I say _cannon_, I need you to pick me up and toss me at the nearest opposition player.” Claude whispered in Raphael’s ear. “Got it! No problemo.” Raphael said, not even questioning the task.

Behind them, Felix began to emerge from the tunnel and walk out onto the field. Fixing his hair as he walked out. 

“**FELIX!**” He heard from the stands and turned to look. Annette was at the front row, smiling and blushing madly. “**GOOD LUCK!**” She yelled, causing him to smile. He could only awkwardly nod at her, which he cursed himself for as he began to line up with the others. 

Meanwhile up on the stands, Ferdinand had finally turned up, equipped with a small box of boneless chicken and two forks. “Sorry that me and Hubert are intruding, he had said you two were coming and I didn’t think you would mind.” 

Dorothea looked at Edelgard, an unamused look on her face but Edelgard couldn’t deny him. “No, not at all, just please don’t try and make a competition of anything...” Edelgard sighed. 

Ferdinand sat down and passed a fork to Hubert “As in?-“

“Just don’t be annoying Ferdie.” Dorothea said, ending the conversation entirely. Edelgard smiled proudly at how straightforward her girlfriend could be. 

A few rows in front of them sat Leonie, Lysithea and Marianne, holding a golden deer banner. Marianne stared at her phone, seeing that Hilda had read and ignored her text. 

“Where the hells Hilda? It’s gonna start soon.” Leonie grumbled, pulling at a loose thread on the edge of the banner. “Marianne where is she?” Lysithea hissed, swatting Leonie away from pulling at the thread. 

“I don’t know... she left me on read...” Marianne said, and for some reason the thought of being left on read saddened her, especially by Hilda. 

“Ugh, she’s probably getting laid somewhere so that somebody will do her homework.” Leonie laughed, the comment causing Marianne to look down sadly. 

Lysithea punched Leonie on the arm “That’s not funny.” Leonie pouted and looked over at the said Marianne. “Sorry Marianne, she’ll be here soon.” Leonie reassured her. Marianne only nodded. 

There was a loud bang that sounded the start of the game. Both teams rushed at each other and suddenly the ball was in Dimitri’s hand and he was rushing across the field. 

No one could honestly keep up with what was going on, other than Dedue and Raphael tackling each other every five minutes. 

As the game went on it was mostly Felix and Sylvain trying to outshine each other, which also led to multiple goals being scored in their favour. 

Claude stopped next to Raphael and decided, it was time his plan was put into motion. 

“**RAPHAEL, CANNON!**” Claude yelled and Raphael wasn’t slow on picking him up and tossing him. 

Claude’s life flashed before his eyes and before he knew it he was bashing off of someone and falling to the ground. Claude turned to see Sylvain rubbing his head in pain under him. 

“**Both of you, off the field!**” Jeralt boomed from the sidelines. Sylvain huffed as he and Claude quickly ran off of the field. However this was a perfect opportunity for Claude. 

Sylvain tossed his helmet off and onto the bench with the other players who were benched. He limped across the side of the field but was stopped by someone gripping onto his arm. 

He turned to see Ingrid throwing his arm over her shoulder. “What’re you-“

“Taking you to the nurse idiot, you’re pretty hurt.” She sighed and walked into the tunnel, leading him away from everyone. 

“You don’t have to help me.” Sylvain complained yet didn’t pull away from her. “I do, you wouldn’t be able to function without me.” Ingrid giggled, shifting his weight onto her a little more. 

“Wait.” He said firmly. Concerned, Ingrid pushed him against the wall to support him. Narrow hallways were finally useful for something. “Why are you helping me?” He asked, pushing the hair out of his face. 

“Because you’re my friend, why else-“

“When Dimitri gets hurt, you let Mercedes handle it, you pretend not to notice when anything happens to Felix, but you’d do anything for me, why-“

“We’re not talking about this.” She huffed turned her head away in protest. “Fine, let’s not talk.” She turned back to face him so she could question what he meant, but instead was met with Sylvain’s lips against her own. 

She wrapped an arm around his neck and cupped his cheek, leaning into the kiss, even though she could’ve easily protested. Sylvain pulled back, his face still close to Ingrid’s. 

“So?”

“We need to get you to the nurse-“

“But...” he didn’t bother to continue prodding her further, he just let her help him along the corridor. 

_____________________________________

The game played on without Claude and Sylvain, an amazing goal playing on the big screen. 

Until the big screen suddenly switch to a girl with pink hair on a horse. Everyone, bewildered by the sight, looked down at the field and was met with the sight of Hilda riding across the field on a horse. 

The three golden deer girls jaws dropped. “Is that...” Leonie started, putting the banner down. 

“Hilda riding on...”

“My _Dorte_!” Marianne squeaked, fearing for her horses life as a football was thrown over Hilda’s head. “Hilda what have you done to my horse!” Marianne squealed, running down the stairs to the bottom of the stand. 

On the horse was two cardboard antlers that had been attached to Dorte’s head and a silk golden blanket over the horse’s back. 

“**FEAR THE DEER!**” Claude boomed over the tannoy and could be seen holding his hands like antlers at his head from the box above everyone. 

It was when Marianne looked back at Hilda on her horse- who was smiling happily at her- did she notice the words ‘go out with me?’ written down on a board she was holding. 

Go out with who? Wait. She was smiling at her and riding her horse-

“**MAAARIIANNE!-**“

And now she was calling her name. Marianne’s face created a new shade of red as she blushed from embarrassment. A grand gesture? For her? Meek Marianne?

Before Marianne could process anything, Hilda was in front of her, the horse standing patiently behind Hilda and the looming question in Hilda’s hands. 

“_**Yes!**_” Marianne spluttered, some primal desire telling her that saying yes to Hilda was everything she wanted. 

Hilda stopped dead for a moment before tears began forming in her eyes, a massive grin forming upon her face. 

Marianne, overwhelmed by everything happening, leapt at Hilda, who caught her on instinct. She leaned down, capturing Hilda’s lips, who happily let her. 

“**HIIILDAAAA!**” 

Hilda and Marianne pulled away from each other, eyes wide in terror. That sound was the sound of Seteth, the vice principal. 

“Quick, get on Dorte!” Hilda said, tossing Marianne over the horse before climbing atop, the horse almost immediately galloping back across the field. Marianne could be seen gripping onto Hilda’s waist in fear for her life. Hilda tried to grip onto the antlers, but they fell off. 

At Seteth’s command all the players began walking off of the field and the bystanders began to leave as well. 

Annette rushed from the stands, catching Felix before he went back inside. “Felix, wait!” She called out as she dashed over to him. He stopped and turned to her, already taking off his arm guards. 

“Do you wanna get dinner?” He said abruptly, his face morphing between embarrassment and awkwardness. Annette blinked a few times, trying to process his expression. 

“Y-Yeah, that’s what I was gonna ask...” Annette said quietly. Felix gulped and looked back at Dimitri who was waiting for him. “Let me get changed first, I’ll come get you from your dorm.” He said before running off. 

Annette giddily ran back inside to the dorms, she was looking forward to dinner. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading everybody, I hope everybody enjoyed coz I enjoyed writing it. Also my twitters @shoyousugar if anyone cares, I follow everyone back so yah.... see ya next chapter.


	3. They’re Going Through Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has new and different things in their lives, it’s whether they act on their impulses, adapt or revert to their old ways that matters.

Claude, Dimitri, Marianne and Hilda sat outside the principals office. Knowing full well that Rhea would give them the lecture of a lifetime, followed by Seteth giving them the most opportunities to make fun of him. 

“How _amazing_ would it be if we got suspended?” Hilda said, a glint in her eye. Marianne and Claude giggled at her and turned to Dimitri, who looked utterly horrified. 

“How would getting suspended be a _good thing?!_ I wouldn’t be able to get rid of the shame of a suspension!” Dimitri sighed exasperatedly, almost as if he’d ran a marathon. 

“Why’re you here anyway Dimitri?” Marianne asked, befuddled by the whole situation. “Could it be... no... did you do a dastardly misdeed Dimitri?!” Claude said dramatically, bouncing up and holding his hands over his mouth.

“No, _no_, nothing like that at all! I’m somehow here because of your antics!” 

“Well excuse me your highness! Remember you’re a king on the field but in here you’re just another-“

Flayn the door open, stopping Claude from ending his sentence. “Rhea says for you four to enter now.” She said, leaving the door open and leaving.

The two girls and boys sighed and walked inside, the two girls taking a seat on the sofa whilst the boys stood in front of the desk. 

Rhea stood up and sat on the side of the desk, her face buried in her palm, shaking her head dramatically. “I loathe that you four have made a mockery of the long awaited football game that would advertise you all for nationals. And for the two captains to be involved! Goodness...” Rhea continued to act as though as she on a stage. 

“Actually Dimitri had nothing to do with it, but to cut a long lecture short, the three of us have the utmost respect for this academy-“

“There’s four of you-“

“Hilda doesn’t count, she doesn’t know what that word means. _Anyways_, if you could skip to our punishment please.” Claude finished his small speech, whilst Hilda could be heard typing away on her phone. 

“I could never punish a crime in the name of love... just continue your training and keep your grades above the standards.” Rhea sighed and adjusted her hair. The two boys looked at each other with raised eyebrows. 

Hilda’s phone began to ring and she answered it immediately, bouncing up off of the sofa. “Hey Dorothea, yeah I can talk, just in Rhea’s office-“ she walked out the door, still talking on the phone as if she wasn’t supposed to be getting into trouble. 

“Marianne, I pray you weren’t only swayed by grand gestures and gorgeous features.” Rhea didn’t bother to look up to say her peace. The two boys shook their heads and followed Hilda’s lead by leaving, Marianne following behind them. 

_____________________________________

A quint cafe, a doting father and a more than unamused daughter. “Jeralt and Byleth are here...” Lysithea grumbled from behind the counter. Her professors being here meant that Leonie was about to go whacko, which she honestly didn’t want. 

“Why won’t you just take the higher paying job-“

“Because Rhea’s weird and I don’t like her vibes!”

“_Vibes_? What are you twelve?” Jeralt laughed, downing his coffee and throwing his arm over the back of his chair. “No- Ugh, you don’t understand, she’s just... strange.” Byleth tried to explain with many hand gestures that meant nothing to him.

“I don’t have the faintest idea what you mean, I’ve barely ever spoke to the woman.” Jeralt sighed, giving up on what his daughter meant. 

“Like... I feel like she asks me to do unnecessary tasks as an excuse to talk to me, like when she asked me to put up banners for the football game.”

“Isn’t she Sothis’ sister?” 

“Exactly!” Byleth squealed, glad she’d finally got through to him. 

“So you and Sothis are coming for dinner tonight?” 

“Okay change the subject then... yeah we are.” Byleth sighed and leaned back in her chair. “It’s not gonna be like last time where you smashed four glasses is it?” He chuckled dryly. 

“That was an accident, a tragic, tragic accident.” Byleth shivered at the thought of how embarrassing it was to attempt to kiss her girlfriend before bumping into her by accident, causing a barrage of glasses to fall to the ground. 

“Great, because I didn’t want to clean it- oh shit, look at the time, we better get back.” Jeralt huffed, standing and scraping his chair under the table. He rushed out the door and back across the campus. 

Byleth laughed at how over the top her father was and made her way over to the counter. She left a ten dollar bill on the countertop “Thanks again Leo-“

“Don’t thank me, it’s just my job.”

“Okay then...” Byleth raised an eyebrow towards her before leaving. 

Lysithea furrowed her brow at Leonie who was now clearing up the mess behind the counter. She shook her head before saying:

“_God_ you’re such a _bitch..._” 

_____________________________________

There was a sound of metal clanging and wind rushing before coming to a sudden halt. This was common for the training area, especially when Edelgard was around. 

Like before, she had tried to throw in some of her acrobatic moves with her swordplay, which would lead to some sore muscles later. However, she was just finishing up, so that meant she could go soak in a nice warm bath... 

_ **CHING!** _

But before that, she had to finish off her opponent. She sidestepped the person and jabbed, only for the other person to sidestep her also. She shifted all of her weight into one leg and bent her leg whilst her body bent backwards to avoid the blade. 

_ **CLINK! ** _

With a swift jab forward, Edelgard had won. Again. Unsurprisingly. She stood up straight and wiped the sweat from her forehead, her opponent stomping away in silent fury. 

“Edelgard, I told you to stop relying on gymnastics, you’re gonna burn yourself out!” Jeralt boomed as he strolled into the training area, restocking the shelves with soft towels. 

“But adding that into my strategy makes it unpredictable and effective, besides I should only need a short break.” Edelgard smiled brightly, placing her sword back up on the rack. 

“Well I’ll be in my office if you need me, don’t spend too long licking your wounds.” Jeralt nodded before walking back out of the room. For being the head of the training regime, he wasn’t exactly active. 

“Aw, _maybe_ I can lick your wounds for you~” 

Edelgard felt arms wrap around her from behind and her cheeks instantly began to burn up. The melodic sound of Dorothea giggling rang in her ears, her small laughs were as pleasing to hear as her actual voice. 

“I thought you were doing your protest?” Edelgard asked in confusion. “I was on my way and thought I’d stop in to see how you were doing, and it looks as if you overdid it... again.” Dorothea sighed out of frustration. 

“I’m fine, you don’t have to worry.” Edelgard turned and smiled, wrapping her arms around Dorothea’s waist. “I would kiss you but I’m sweating badly.” Edelgard giggled again, shyly averting her gaze to her feet. 

Dorothea rolled her eyes and leaned towards her, planting a soft kiss on Edelgard’s lips, which the white haired girl didn’t want to end just yet, so she held Dorothea there for as long as she could. She bit the brunettes bottom lip slightly as she pulled back. 

“Call me later so I know you’re alright.” 

“Ever the control freak.” 

“I’m not a control freak, I’m just protective.” Edelgard childishly pouted and turned her head away slightly. Dorothea smiled and mentally traced Edelgard’s lips, finding them satisfyingly plump. 

“Are you going back to your mom’s house tonight?” Dorothea asked, a sad sigh escaping past her lips. Edelgard mimicked her sigh and nodded. “Yeah, I’ll call you tonight though, promise.” She smiled half heartedly, not exactly wanting to go see her mom, but she had to do what she had to do. 

“Well, call me what you want, when you want, if you want-“

“You’re an amazing singer, but I’ve heard that song far too much.” 

“You’re no fun!” Dorothea pouted and broke away, picking up her sign that she’d placed on the ground. “What’d be a good one liner?” She asked, a serious face drawn onto Dorothea. 

“‘You’re depression is chronic but you’re tits are iconic.’” 

“Edie that’s scandalous and has nothing to do with biased superiors, _but I love it_.” 

_____________________________________

“Ow! _Fuck_!” 

Sylvain rubbed the back of his head as he rose up in his bed, his eyes scrunched shut from whatever pain he was in. When his eyes finally opened, his eyesight was hazy and he could make out a blonde figure sitting on his bed. 

“Finally, you’re up.” Ingrid said, leaning back on one hand. Sylvain raised his eyebrow and dragged his hand from the back of his head, down his neck and rested it in his chest. “What’re you doing here for?” He asked. 

“To check up on you, duh... so how’s your ankle?” She said, as straight to the point as ever. Sylvain lulled his head to the side, not quite awake just yet. “Are you sure it’s not because you wanted to see my charming smile and my dashing good looks?” He quipped, running a hand through his hair.

Ingrid picked up a pillow from his small sofa and tossed it at him. “Don’t be a dick or you’ll need to answer to Felix.” Ingrid grinned, knowing that her threat was more than possible. 

“Speaking of, didn’t Felix go out last night?” Sylvain wiggled his eyebrows, adjusting himself and casually slinging his arms behind his head, showing off his tones biceps. 

“Go out where?” Ingrid asked, throwing herself onto the sofa. “You know, he _went out._” He said, wiggling his eyebrows again. Ingrid furrowed her brow at Sylvain and tried to decipher whatever he was talking about. 

The door clicked open and shut, and in came Felix, his face looking a little softer than usual. “Hey, Felix, tell her about you’re date.” Sylvain flashed a cheeky grin. Ingrid rolled her eyes “Why couldn’t you have said that before.” 

“What date?” Felix said with a-weirdly cute-confused face. Sylvain narrowed his eyes and held his arms out in front of him “Dude, you went on a date with Annette, c’mon keep up.” 

“We just went for dinner, it wasn’t a date?” Felix said, narrowing his eyes and brow in confusion. “Felix...” Ingrid said, a disappointed yet sorrowful look drawn across her face. “You both like each other. She comes to all your games, you go to all her debates and you both study magic together, going for dinner together was a date.” 

Sylvain pointed his hands towards Ingrid and smiled knowingly “No other words are needed.” Felix paused and attempted to process everything Ingrid had just said. Annette came to cheer for him all the time, and he had started going to her debates... 

“What you’ve just described is friendship.” Felix said, blinking twice. Sylvain slapped his hands over his face before holding them back out again “_You. Are. So. Frustrating! Oh my god!”_

Felix stood still, thinking it over again. He chose to sit next to Annette instead of Sylvain in their magic classes but that was because he was annoying and she was... well, she wasn’t annoying. He would also offer to help her all the time, but that was because he liked-

“Oh...” Felix’s face combusted into a mix of red skin and embarrassment. Ingrid and Sylvain laughed in unison and looked at each other with a newfound joy of seeing their oblivious friend finally realise he had a crush. 

“S-So what do I do? Does she feel like this? What if-“

“Okay, dude, shut up,” Sylvain pointed at him and adjusted to sit up slightly “In my experience, just kick back and relax.” Sylvain threw his hands behind his head again, showing off his tantalising biceps. Again. He was doing it on purpose now. 

“Don’t listen to him. Just ask her out again, on a real date. I’ll even help you.” Ingrid declared, standing up and grabbing her handbag. “Hey, what about me?” Sylvain said, sounding heartbroken. 

“What about you? You’re fine, laters Sylvain~” Ingrid sang as she made her way out of the dorm room. Felix waved shyly before following after her. 

Sylvain huffed and grabbed his laptop, going into a mood as he put in his earphones. 

_____________________________________

Hilda and Marianne sat on Marianne’s bed, at least five feet apart from each other. 

It was awkward to say the least. 

Hilda thought that this would’ve been a great idea, jump into a relationship with a beautiful girl who meant the world to you. However that wasn’t the case as Marianne was the shyest person on the planet. 

There was a soft murmur of music coming from Dorothea’s dorm room, and with the type of music it was more than likely Edelgard blaring it. Marianne would normally hate it, but it kept the room from being completely silent. 

Marianne glanced over to see Hilda holding her hand out in the middle of them, her pinky sticking out a little more than her other fingers. Marianne’s hand crept over to Hilda’s and stuck out her pinky. 

Their pinky’s interlocked somehow unintentionally, but they could both hear each other giggling at their actions. Hilda looked over to try and see the other girls expression. 

She was met with Marianne smiling and biting her bottom lip to suppress her giggles. Hilda, feeling a little bolder, closed the gap between them in one swift movement, now sitting only a few inches away from Marianne now. 

“What’re you being so shy for? It’s only me.” Hilda beamed, locking hands with Marianne now. “I guess it’s just a little... new...” Marianne said shakily. 

“Well yeah, there’s some new stuff, like this,” Hilda experimentally placed a kiss on Marianne’s cheek, causing her to blush. “But we can still have fun, like we can still... watch shows, play games, go out- my point is, there’s nothing to be nervous about.” Hilda continued to beam. 

Marianne smiled and turned ever so slightly towards Hilda. “Sorry for wasting time sitting awkwardly...” Marianne said meekly. Hilda responded by caressing a part of Marianne’s hand with her thumb, and smiled gently. 

“Well, let’s not waste anymore time.” Hilda said, standing up and dragging Marianne with her. “What’re we doing?-“

“We’re gonna go out tonight with the funnest people I know.” Hilda said, leading Marianne by the hand. 

They got out into the hall, Marianne locking the door and Hilda impatiently stomping her foot. As soon as Marianne had taken the key back out of the door she was being hauled to the room next door. 

“_Dorotheaaaaa_~” Hilda sang as she threw the door open, only to be met with a confused Edelgard all dressed up. “Where’s your lovely girlfriend?” Hilda sighed, now disappointed that she’d have to go on a wild goose chase to find Dorothea. 

“At a protest, I was just about to go out with Hubert.” Edelgard said, as poised and elegant as she could be after getting a surprise visitor. Hilda scanned her outfit. Edelgard wore a cashmere coat with a cream turtleneck, black jeans and white sneakers. 

“Wear some gold jewellery.” Was all Hilda sat before she left, pulling away a bewildered Marianne. 

_____________________________________

Edelgard stood outside the dormitory, awaiting Hubert to come pick her up. They had made plans to go to the cinema because they hadn’t really done anything together in such a long time. 

But when Hubert’s car pulled up in front of her, she let out a long sigh of disappointment. 

She climbed into the back seat and tossed her handbag to the side. In the front seat, next to Hubert, where Edelgard would usually sit, was Ferdinand. 

Arrogant, annoying, overzealous Ferdinand. Who was a great contrast to Hubert in every way possible, from his attitude to his personality, even his looks! 

“Sorry for intruding Edelgard, but I heard you were going to the cinema and I couldn’t resist.”Ferdinand smiled, Edelgard could see he was wearing the exact same coat as her only in black.... she didn’t know whether that was a coincidence or not. 

“No, don’t apologise, the movie will still be good...” Edelgard trailed off, looking out the window. “Movie? I thought we were going wine tasting-“

“_Hubert!_”

“I’m sorry Edelgard, I thought it would be a nice surprise...” Hubert pouted and gripped onto the steering wheel. “Forget it, can you just drop my off at my mom’s please.” Edelgard huffed, now in a foul mood. 

“Right... I’ll make it up to you...” Hubert mumbled and continued to drive, a pissed off Edelgard in the back and a try hard Ferdinand literally gritting his teeth. 

“We could always ditch the wine tasting.” Ferdinand said, a newfound confidence in his voice. “It’s alright Ferdinand...” Edelgard trailed off as she pulled out her phone. 

**Dorothea:** hey bby, u out yet?

Edelgard smiled, her mood taking doing a complete one-eighty at the sight of the text. 

**Edelgard:** i’m not going anymore, did u get hilda? she was looking for you

**Dorothea:** yeah we’re going out for a few drinks, wanna come? 

**Edelgard:** yeah text me where u guys are and I’ll come down

“-And I don’t understand why Rhea has a strange obsession with the professor.” Ferdinand finished his sentence which left Edelgard baffled as to what they’d been talking about. 

“It’s strange to say the least, especially because Sothis is Rhea’s sister...” Hubert trailed off, as he focused on parking outside of Edelgard’s apartment complex. 

Edelgard thanked Hubert for driving her and quickly left, running into the building. 

“We don’t need to go to the wine tasting-“

“Ferdinand, I exclusively drink absinthe, but I’ll go to the wine tasting for you.” Hubert said dryly 

Ferdinand looked as if he was about to tear up. “Thank you.” He choked out through happy tears. 

_____________________________________

Ingrid and Felix sat huddled at Felix’s desk, both of them staring down at his phone that had Annette’s text chat open. 

“You know what you’re gonna write yet?”

“No-“

“_Felix_ it’s eight o’ clock, you’re leaving it kind of late!” Ingrid spluttered, completely giving up on her friend at this point. Felix exhaled and pushed himself back. “I can’t do it, she’s too good-“

“_Don’t give me that too good for me bullshit_, just text her!” 

“Okay miss, ‘I get jealous when you go out with other girls but I’ll never admit I like you.’” Felix scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. “What’re you talking about?” Ingrid asked, raising her eyebrow at Felix. 

“Sylvain, I’m talking about _Sylvain_!” Felix said more aggressively than before. “Ugh, what about Sylvain...” Ingrid scoffed, running a hand through her hair as she looked away. 

“You complain and get jealous when he shows any interest in any girl that isn’t you, but then you pretend you don’t feel anything for him when he brings it up.” 

“Stop thinking about me and Sylvain and start thinking about Annette.” Ingrid huffed and picked up Felix’s phone. 

**Felix:** if ur not doing anything want to go see a movie? 

“What’re you doing?” Felix asked, hunching over the phone with a newfound interest. “Going to the cinema at night is the best kind of date, because there’s literally no one else around.” Ingrid smiled and handed him the phone back just as it pinged.

**Annette:** yeee!!! just come get me at my dorm whenever you’re ready :3

Felix smiled softly and attempted to hide it from Ingrid. He reached his hand over and grabbed Ingrid’s phone, somehow unlocking it effortlessly. 

**Ingrid:** I’m gonna come over soon is that okay?

“Felix, _what the hell_!” Ingrid squealed and snatched her phone back. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but.... just go watch fucking TV with him or something, I don’t know.” Felix shrugged and walked over it his wardrobe, pulling it open. 

Felix pulled out an aqua coloured sweatshirt and tossed it over his arm. “If you’re forcing me to move on then you better be doing it yourself.” Felix grumbled, quickly changing shirts before ushering Ingrid out the door. 

Ingrid rolled her eyes as she walked next door to Sylvain’s dorm, not stopping for a beat as she opened the door and waltzed right in. 

Sylvain stared at her with a strange glint in his eye. He was in almost the exact same position as earlier, except this time he looked a little cleaner. 

Ingrid sighed happily and kicked her shoes off, climbing up onto the bed and snuggling up next to Sylvain. “We’re watching that documentary ‘voyeur’.” He said with a small smile. She giggled and pulled the earphones out the side of the laptop. 

“Sounds right up your alley.” 

“Yeah, you up for watching it?”

“Only if you are...”

_____________________________________

The apartment was fairly quiet. Edelgard had been sitting around for a little while whilst her mother watched her like a hawk. She glanced over at the dining table and got an amazing idea. 

“Mom, could I bring a friend to family dinner?” She asked experimentally. Edelgard’s mother turned to her, her face completely confused yet joyful. “Like a boyfriend or a friend-friend?” Her mother asked, intrigued by her daughters sudden interest.

“Like a friend-friend, I think you’d like her.” Edelgard said, knowing her mother would approve of her idea now. “Okay... bring her then, I look forward to this.” Her mother nodded absently. 

Edelgard’s heart flipped and she suddenly felt excited for what must be the most boring dinner ever. She suddenly heard thudding coming down the stairs next to her. 

She looked to see Claude and Dimitri, both smartly dressed. “Where are you guys going?” Edelgard asked, raising an eyebrow at them. “Oh, we’re going to meet Hilda, Marianne and Dorothea.” Dimitri said excitedly (he’d rarely ever been on nights out.)

“Me too, I’ll drive you guys.” Edelgard said, standing up and leaving the apartment with them without a second thought. The only thought she had was Dorothea at family dinner. Would it be spectacular or a spectacular fail? She’ll just have to find out. 

It took them longer than it should’ve to find a parking spot, but she was thankful for the bubbly, slightly tipsy, brunette who was standing outside the bar ready to greet her. 

Dorothea stumbled towards her as she got out the car. She stumbled forward and held Edelgard’s waist and neck in a vice grip, before dipping her head down and kissing her viciously. 

“_Edie_~ What took you so long~” she pouted and rested herself against Edelgard. “Well I convinced my mom to let me bring you to family dinner-“

“WHAT?! REALLY?!” 

“Yeah, sometime this week.” Edelgard smiled and gently caressed Dorothea’s arms. “_Edie, I’m_\- I’m- I’m gonna be sick.” She finally said before turning away and breaking into a stumble. 

Edelgard panicked and scurried after Dorothea, gripping onto her hair and holding her upright as best as she could. 

On second thoughts, she didn’t know how her mother would feel about her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed! I’ll probs do a Halloween chapter so... yeah that’s it really.


	4. Dinner Parties and Dirty Dishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the dinner party. That’s it.

Sylvain and Felix side eyed each other as they watching Dimitri, hunched over a piece of paper and scribbling like a psychopath. 

“What’re you doing?” Sylvain asked bravely, not knowing if Dimitri would snap at him or not. Dimitri simply ignored him and went about his scribbling. Felix inhaled sharply. 

“The boar’s lost it-“

“Felix, please stop calling me that-“

“Not my fault your an animal.” Felix shrugged and whipped the piece of paper right out from under Dimitri’s nose. “An animal in more ways than one.” Sylvain laughed and leaned in to get a look at the paper. 

The paper consisted of a table with several names around it, the names placed in specific seats with specific instructions for each of them. 

“It’s for family dinner tonight...” Dimitri said sheepishly, hanging his head low. “Seems a little extreme-“

“Wait you’re taking Claude to family dinner?” Sylvain said, his jaw dropping. “Yes? What’s wrong with that?” Dimitri replied, confused as to why his reaction was so over the top. 

“I forgot you had _friends_ other than us.” Felix chuckled and placed the piece of paper back down on the table. Dimitri smirked and leaned back in his chair “I forgot you had friends other than us too _Felix_.” 

Sylvain made an ‘o’ shape with his mouth causing Felix to push his arm. “What’d you and Annette do the other night anyway?” Sylvain asked and sat on Dimitri’s desk. 

“Cinema then we went and got food.” Felix stated dryly, fighting off a smile threatening to creep onto his face. Sylvain looked at Dimitri and both of them shook their heads. “You’re so boring-“

“_Shut up!_”

“It’s just... tragic.” Sylvain said, dramatically throwing himself back against the wall and hiding his face behind his hand. “As great as it is to see you both, why’re you here?” Dimitri asked, a nervous smile on his face.

“He’s avoiding Ingrid because he’s a dick-“

“_Felix!_”

“Why’re you avoiding her?” Dimitri asked, furrowing his brow. Sylvain lulled his head from side to side and tensed one of his cheeks. “She likes me, then she doesn’t, then there’s other stuff going on cause the gala is pretty soon- it’s a mess.” Sylvain sighed and frowned. 

“Avoiding her yet he’s still going out with her later.” Felix said, pulling out his phone, completely uninterested. 

“It sounds like a mess but I honestly have my own mess right now.” Dimitri chuckled and glanced back at his paper table plan. “What’s your mess then?” Felix asked, trying to keep the conversation flowing. 

“It’s... difficult-“

“Forget it, let’s go Sylvain.” Felix waved and began making his way over to the door. Sylvain groaned and followed behind him, saying a curt goodbye to Dimitri. 

_____________________________________

Ingrid sat staring at herself in the mirror, makeup bag open and ready to be applied. However there was only one problem, she’d never actually done this by herself before. 

She groaned and ran her hand through her bangs, she’d given up before she’d even started. 

** _KNOCK! KNOCK!_ **

“Come in!” Ingrid yelled, not wanting to get to to greet whoever was bothering her. The door slowly opened and in came Dorothea, adorning a light blush and small smile on her face. 

“Just bringing back the earrings I borrowed, don’t mind me.” Dorothea said, skipping over to her and placing the gold earrings onto the dresser. “Actually, do you have time to help me with my makeup?” Ingrid asked, relieved by Dorothea’s presence. 

“Yeah, just don’t tell Mercedes because she _loves_ doing your makeup.” Dorothea giggled and leaned against the dresser, picking up the bottle of foundation. It was literally seconds before Ingrid felt the cold liquid being dabbed on her skin. 

“Where are you going?” Dorothea asked, still somehow focused on the makeup. “Me and Sylvain are going for dinner, what about you?” Ingrid said, not sure whether she should talk or if she was spoiling the makeup. 

“I’m having dinner with Edie’s family, which as you know is a whole thing.” Dorothea sighed painfully. “Hopefully it’s not awkward or anything.” The blonde winced and kept her eyes closed as Dorothea continued applying something to her face (she’d lost track).

“Yeah, it’ll be fine, Dimitri’s bringing Claude to balance everything. Are you and Sylvain dating?” She asked, now searching through the tiny bag for mascara. “No, but I like him and... I don’t know.” Ingrid sighed and kept still as Dorothea swiped the mascara at her eyelashes.

“Well what is it that’s making you second guess yourself.” Dorothea asked, now switching to the other eye. “Well he’s funny and charming on the surface, but there’s something darker whenever he talks. I- weirdly I just want to help him.” Ingrid sighed, now going silent as Dorothea began to apply lipstick. 

Dorothea finished up her work and sat back, looking off into space. “The only thing I can say is just be there for him, because he’s still your friend, right?” The brunette smiled softly in an attempt to comfort her friend. 

“I envy your ability to read people.” 

“And I envy how oblivious you can be.” Dorothea giggled and stood up, sauntering over to the door. “I’m gonna go get ready but I hope you enjoy you’re dinner.” She smiled again, hanging on the door handle. 

“Thanks, I’ll text you later and tell you how it goes.” 

“Do you need condoms? I can get you some-“

“Okay, go get ready.” 

_____________________________________

Byleth sighed a sigh of relief as she closed the door to her apartment behind her. She was so unbelievably relieved to get home after every faculty meeting possible was thrown at her. She was also just glad to get home to her girlfriend-

“**_BARK!_**” 

Her eyes flew open and she bolted into the living room. Byleth was stunned as she saw Sothis standing with a Dalmatian in her arms, smiling and cuddling it. “There’s a dog... in our apartment...” Byleth said slowly, trying to process what was going on. 

“Yeah, his name’s Macuil, isn’t he cute.” Sothis smiled and moved Macuil’s paw as if he was waving. 

“And you’ve named it...”

“Yeah, I just bought him?” 

“You bought a dog... without telling me...” 

“Why’re you being so weird?”

“Because you bought a _dog_ without talking to me about it?!” Byleth yelled and threw her hands over her eyes. “_Jesus_, it’s a puppy how much damage can it do?” Sothis rolled her eyes and cradled the puppy, which lulled it’s tongue out playfully. 

“We both work for at least seven hours a day, we don’t have time to look after a dog!” Byleth yelled again, throwing her hands out in front of her. “But look at him,” Sothis held the dog in front of Byleth’s face “he’s so cute.” 

Byleth blinked a few times, the dog’s cute face slowly disintegrating Byleth’s temper. She slowly reached up and took the dog, which licked her in turn. “He is... cute.” She smiled and hugged the dog. 

“And to make you feel that little bit better, I already found a dog sitter for when we’re at work, plus I’m gonna start evening shifts instead.” Sothis said proudly. 

“God, you’re gonna struggle with the tutor classes-“

“I already struggle, this won’t be any different.” Sothis laughed and pressed a hand on her hip. Byleth smiled and put the dog down, letting it run over and roll on the carpet. “I love you...” Sothis said, wrapping an arm around Byleth’s neck and cupping her cheek. 

Byleth gently connected their lips and raked her nails up and down Sothis’ back. “Why are you so aggressive all the time?” Sothis giggled and fluttered her eyelashes. 

“Also Rhea’s coming over for dinner tomorrow-“

“_Oh for fuck sake_-“

_____________________________________

“So this is the plan-“

“Edie, we don’t _need_ a plan-“

“We definitely do, my stepmother is a control freak.” Dimitri said deadpan, leaning his chin on his fist as he paid attention to Edelgard’s dinner plan. 

Dorothea sighed and shook out her hair, adjusting her t-shirt and blazer. “Edie can you just go over it one more time, we’ll be late at this rate.” Dorothea asked with pleading eyes. Edelgard nodded and smiled sweetly.

“Just be your charming self _but_ don’t flirt with me and I’ll put your handbag in my room, so if you need an excuse to talk to me you can ask for your handbag.” Edelgard continued to smile. 

“What about Claude?” Dorothea asked, looking between the two siblings for an answer. “He knows not to mention your relationship but apart from that we’ll let him do whatever he wants.” Dimitri sighed, knowing that the only good outcome was letting Claude so whatever he wanted. 

“_Okay_... I’m gonna go get Claude then I’ll meet both of you downstairs.” Dimitri said, before excusing himself as quickly as possible. The two girls stared at each other for a moment before Dorothea stood up. 

“If we’re good to go then, c’mon.” Dorothea said, a nervous shakiness in her voice. She swung the strap of her handbag over her shoulder and fixed her skirt, all the while Edelgard watched with glazed over eyes. 

Edelgard walked over and roughly pushed her lips against Dorothea’s, gripping onto the back of her head. She moved her head to the side, slipping her tongue into the kiss. Dorothea was overwhelmed by whatever Edelgard was doing, but she wasn’t complaining. 

Dorothea whined when Edelgard pulled away with the same flushed, glazed over look as before. “What was _that_ for?” Dorothea giggled and licked her lip, the feeling still lingering. “Because this is gonna be the most boring and awkward three hours of our lives.” Edelgard laughed, and took Dorothea’s handbag off of her arm.

“Carrying my handbag while you can?” 

“You know it.” 

_____________________________________

Hilda lay on her back, her eyes closed, taking in the beautiful serene atmosphere that was Marianne’s dorm room when Dorothea and Edelgard weren’t home. 

There was something amazing about how she could say or do anything she wanted right now and Marianne would support it. However she’d be happier if she just finished her homework for fashion and design... 

“Do you ever think about how weird this college is?” Hilda asked, turning her head slightly to face Marianne, who was typing away on her laptop. “What do you mean?” Marianne asked, not looking up from her screen but it was clear she was listening. 

“Like, we have the ‘traditional’ classes like magic and alchemy, but we also have modern classes like ‘ICT’ and ‘fashion design’, it’s weird.” Hilda explained, her hand flipping around in the air as she did so. 

“Well the college used to only be magic, alchemy and all the old fashioned stuff, but then they opened the new building with all the modern stuff.” Marianne said, her hazel eyes peering over the top of her laptop. 

“Really? Huh, the more you know.... hey, Marianne?” 

“Yeah?”

“You’re super smart you know.” Hilda smiled as she complimented her. Marianne blushed and a small smile was hidden behind her laptop. “Thanks... you should stop procrastinating-“

“I _knooowwww_.” Hilda whined and rolled onto her stomach, stretching her arms and legs out. “I’ve almost finished my essay so I can help you with it.” Marianne said, typing faster with a newfound purpose for finishing it. 

Hilda grew bored after a few moments and rolled onto her back, as she peeled off her hoodie, her t-shirt coming up very so slightly to reveal her midriff. It was then that she caught Marianne blushing and she smirked evilly. 

“Marianne?”

“Y-Yes?” 

“Do I need to do homework right now?” Hilda smiled as she rested herself against Marianne’s leg, caressing the other with her hand. Marianne audibly squeaked as she felt Hilda touch her leg. 

“I-I guess not...” Marianne said and absently moved her leg into Hilda’s touch. “Your skins so soft...” Hilda murmured, causing Marianne’s breath to hitch. Hilda could hear Marianne’s breath hitch again as she stroked her leg with affection. 

Hilda, moving on pure instinct, leaned over Marianne and moved her laptop out of the way. “Let’s just take a break...” Hilda whispered, closing the gap between her and Marianne’s face. She leaned her forehead against her and closed her eyes. 

“Would this be okay?” She asked, bringing a hand up to caress Marianne’s cheek. “Y-Yeah, but I-I’ve never done anything l-like this before.” She gulped, awkwardly resting her hands on Hilda’s waist. 

“That’s okay, we can learn together...” Hilda said softly, dipping down to kiss Marianne’s lips, she led Marianne’s hands to rest on her thighs. Marianne tried to copy Hilda as best she could, even trying her own thing by taking her nails up and down Hilda’s thighs.

“You’re doing so _good~_” Hilda purred and slowly kissed her way down Marianne’s neck, kissing and biting at her soft skin. “_Hilda...~_” Marianne breathed, continuing to drag her nails up and down Hilda’s thighs. 

“**MARIANNE-**“

Startled Marianne dug her nails into Hilda’s thighs and Hilda bit down too hard against Marianne’s skin. 

“**JESUS CHRIST FERDINAND, LEARN TO KNOCK!**” Hilda yelled as she shot up, staring daggers at the boy standing in the doorway. Marianne hid her face in her hands, embarrassed that Ferdinand had barged in. 

“Apologies, I just wanted to make sure we were using the posters we agreed on-“

“**IF YOU AGREED ON THEM THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING?!**”

“Because I’m just- it’s okay, I’ll take it as a yes.” Ferdinand gulped before leaving. Hilda bounced up and over to the door, locking it behind Ferdinand. “So where were-“

“It’s kind of... ruined.” 

“Blue balled _again_...” Hilda cried and fell to the carpet dramatically. 

_____________________________________

Felix lay on his bed, music drowning out whatever other noise was outside. He’d just showered after going to the gym with Ashe, who insisted it would be good team bonding. 

The one thing he did hear over the music was the sharp knocks on his door that, admittedly., startled him. He quickly got up and ran over to the door, opening it as quickly as he got there. He put one arm on the wall as he held the door open and looked down to see Annette completely out of breath. 

She moved under his arm and into his room, flopping onto the bed. “Come in...” he muttered sarcastically as he closed the door over. “What’s up?” He asked, stuffing his hands in his sweatpants.

“Me and Mercedes were making brownies and the kitchen caught fire, so we put it out and ran.” She said, throwing her head back onto the mattress. “Like... the _actual_ kitchen and not the one in your room?” Felix asked, a genuine question. 

“The cafeteria kitchen...” Annette groaned, throwing her arm over her face. “You so some weird things Annette.” Felix laughed and came over to sit on the bed. “Wait why did you come here?” He said, raising a brow at her. 

Annette blushed and looked away with a small pout. “I just wanted to hang out with you.” She said, twirling one of her pigtails. Felix’s brain went into overdrive, how did he reply to that? Was he supposed to reply? He didn’t have Ingrid to help him.

“I was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out again so...” he rubbed the back of his head and turned away, blushing. “So, this works out then.” Annette smiled and sat up, kicking her shoes off so she could fold her legs on the bed. 

“I was gonna order some food, do you want something?” He asked, pulling out his phone. “Here, I’m just ordering from the app.” He said and passed his phone to Annette. The ginger scrolled through, looking through her food options. 

As she did that, Felix went to changing his shirt, switching it out for a navy shawl cardigan. Annette furrowed her brow at him as she tossed his phone to the side after selecting her food. 

“You wear cardigans with no shirt underneath?” She asked with a tiny smile on her face. “Yeah, sometimes, it’s comfortable.” He said, mimicking her tiny smile. Annette passed the phone back to Felix, which he clicked order. 

He placed his phone back down and sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re a barrel of laughs.” Annette giggled and pressed her foot into his side, causing him to flinch. Experimentally, she did it again; he flinched again. 

She flashed an evil smile and moved onto her knees, moving closer to him. “What are you doing?” He asked, looking at her from the side of his eye. “Are you ticklish Felix?” She asked, moving her hand to his side, tickling him. 

Felix smiled and looked away, grabbing her hand to try stop her. “I’m not ticklish.” He said, still flinching at her hand tickling him. “Oh, really? So you wouldn’t mind if I-“ she cut herself off as she threw her hand to his other side, tickling him there as well. 

Felix laughed involuntarily and fell back onto the bed, Annette following with him. “Annette, stop!” He laughed, not doing anything to stop her. Annette laughed as well, enjoying the foreign sound of his laugh. 

“S-S-Stop it!” Felix managed to say through his laughs. Annette was relentless in her tickling, and her cute smiling face about his wasn’t helping any. 

Regaining any strength that he could, he flipped her over, causing her to yelp in surprise. “That was torture.” He said and they both laughed breathily. He realised he was looming over her and that there was a soft blush painted across her cheeks. 

He lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers, moving entirely on instinct. It only lasted a moment but he could still feel it after he pulled back. “You should, uh, go get the driver, he’s probably lost-“

“Oh, yeah, sure... I’ll be back.” He said as he hopped up. Annette let out a squeal of excitement as soon as she heard the door close behind him. 

_____________________________________

Edelgard was right, the dinner was painful. Painful in the sense that Dorothea was sitting next to Edelgard and couldn’t tease her about the way she cuts her food before she eats it. It was also painful that she was sitting across from Claude, who hadn’t stopped talking for a breath. 

“_You know_, Edelgard’s very skilled at swordsmanship, she throws in little acrobatic moves to get the upper hand.” Claude said, leaning his chin on his hand. 

“Oh, and Dorothea’s a theatre student, she once had a role in an opera.” Claude continued, but no one was listening at this point. “Oh really, which opera?” Patricia asked. 

A smirked creeped its way into Claude’s face, he’d got the ball rolling. “I was one of the understudies for ‘the magic flute’, but they ended up making me the star because of how well I did, I was in newspapers for weeks.” Dorothea bragged, smiling gleefully as she explained her stardom. 

“I remember that, I interviewed Manuela Casagranda and she was over the moon about how you’d got the role of a lifetime at such a young age _but then_-“

“They funded for me to go to Garreg Mach because they thought I needed more experience.” Dorothea finished Lambert’s statement. “That’s right, well let me know when you’re back in theatre, it’ll make for a great story.” Lambert smiled and nudged Dimitri’s shoulder.

“Remember when we went to the theatre Edie?” Dorothea asked a coy smile gracing her lips. “Yes, and I remember you complaining about everybody’s acting.” Edelgard half smirked at her. Dorothea pouted at her and twirled her fork in her hand. 

“I remember Marianne complaining about the noise that night...” Claude mumbled causing Dorothea to kick him. “Claude, why don’t you talk about how you fu- _messed_ up the football game the other week?” Dorothea beamed falsely, and Edelgard remembered how much she liked Dorothea‘s mean streak.

  
“He did it for love... and his ten dollar cpm.” Dimitri said, laughing to himself as he played with what remained of his food. “Who was it for?” Patricia asked with a sudden interest. 

“It was for my friend Hilda, I was helping her do something big for this girl, they’re cute I love them.” Claude said in the sweetest most charming way he could. “That’s cute...” Patricia said with a small smile drawn on her lips. Edelgard’s jaw dropped when she saw her smile. 

“I meant to ask, Dorothea, aren’t you an activist now?” Patricia asked, a strange look on her face whilst she was asking. “Um, yeah... yeah I do some protests but nothing illegal.” Dorothea said, as calmly as she could. 

“Yes, because I thought I saw you the other day outside of city hall...” Patricia said, almost snidely. It fell into a awkward silence at the table, Edelgard feeling it more than anyone. 

“Claude is really great at football, even if he does crazy stunts. I think we’ll both be on the team for nationals.” Dimitri said in some attempt to break the silence. But that noise was just background noise to Dorothea. 

She came to be with Edelgard and had done everything but that, the worst part was that Edelgard’s mother was staring at her as if she was about to murder her. Maybe she figured it out...

“Edie, where’d you put my?” Dorothea asked and Edelgard looked far too relieved that she’d asked. “Oh I put it in my room, c’mon I’ll show you.” She said, both of them standing up and heading up the stairs as quickly as they could. 

As soon as they got inside Edelgard’s room, they both fell onto the bed, so unbelievably relieved to be out of that awkward atmosphere. 

Edelgard sat up and looked Dorothea up and down. “I really like this outfit...” Edelgard said, reaching her hand out to Dorothea’s. “_God_ we’re gonna have to go back in a minute before it looks suspicious.” Dorothea groaned. 

“Do you think she figured it out? She keeps giving me weird looks.” Dorothea said, a worried look on her face. “At this point, I honestly _don’t_ care...” Edelgard sighed, that same glazed over look from earlier returning. 

Dorothea sat up on her elbows and raised an eyebrow at Edelgard, a toothy smirk on her face. “What?” Edelgard asked, standing and fixing the sleeves on her denim jacket. “You’re _actually_ getting turned on about getting caught.” Dorothea laughed as she stood up and walked over to the door. 

“Shut up, no I’m not.” Edelgard said, pouting childishly. “Okay, sure you’re not, I’ll just tease you when we get back down there.” Dorothea laughed as she opened the door. 

The door shut over, much to Dorothea’s surprise, and strong hands were gripping at her waist, spinning her around and pinning her against the door. Edelgard’s kiss was just as rough, even dipping down to bite at her jawline. 

“Not turned on my-_ah_-ass.” Dorothea giggled and didn’t want to protest against whatever Edelgard was doing, but she had to. She gently pulled her hands off of her pulled away from Edelgard’s face as best as she could. “We’ve gotta get back down there Edie.” She sighed, resting her head against the other girl’s. 

“I’m so glad this is almost over.” Edelgard laughed as she opened the door, letting Dorothea out first. 

“We’ll just need to see what goes on in the aftermath~”

_____________________________________

Sylvain was in distress. Distress over his hair, his outfit, his everything. Somehow he seemed to be getting more and know distressed.

“-And Professor Manuela just downed it in front of everybody... so what‘s been going on with you?” Ingrid said, Sylvain completely missing half of her monologue. 

“Uh, good, it’s been fine I guess.” He coughed nervously, hoping that was a good enough reply. Ingrid furrowed her brow at him “What’s going on with you?” 

“_Nothing_, I just... I’m just having a shitty day, sorry.”

“Don’t apologise, just tell me what’s wrong.” She said softly, her gentle smile touching his soul. “It’s just family stuff, the usual things that get me down.” He chuckled dryly and traced the designs on his fork. 

“The gala will be fine, just smile and avoid your brother.” Ingrid said, embarrassed that that was the only thing she could come up with. “Yeah well, he’s a _raging alcoholic_ and it’s open bar so, yeah, it’ll be fine.” Sylvain flashed an eyebrow and sat up, fixing his corduroy jacket. 

“Are you ready to go? We’re better off sulking in your car rather than sulking in here.” Ingrid laughed and reached for her purse, signalling that she’d already decided they were leaving. He nodded and stood up, closely following behind her as they left. 

Sylvain sank into his car seat, waiting for Ingrid to be done doing whatever she was doing on her phone. “Hey, Sylvain?” Ingrid said sweetly. 

“Yeah?” He said, his voice soft and suddenly kind. She reached her hand over, gently gripping onto Sylvain’s hand, causing him to tilt his head towards her. “I... I’m here for you-“

“I know... I know you are, but sometimes I forget that I don’t need to handle everything by myself.” Sylvain smiled, dragging his thumb over Ingrid’s hand. She leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. 

“So are you into me or are you-“

“_Sylvain_, we’re gonna go get drunk, don’t ruin it.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay in the friend zone.” 

_____________________________________

Dinner had finally ended. After three painful hours of waiting, talking and eating, they could finally leave. Dimitri loved his father, but he was so glad to get back to the dorms. 

“So is it okay if I stay at your dorm tonight?” Dimitri asked, pulling on his puffer jacket. “Yeah that’s cool, be warned that Hilda might burst in at any moment though.” Claude said, typing away on his phone. 

“Do you not lock your door?”

“No I gave her a spare key in case I get drunk and lose mine.”

“Claude, that doesn’t sound wise.” 

“Oh it’s not but it’s worth a shot.” Claude said, stuffing his phone in his pocket. 

Dorothea stayed in Edelgard’s room for a moment, staring out the window. “Are you sure you’re okay going back with Dimitri and Claude?” Edelgard asked, turning the room light off. 

“Yeah, I’ll survive an hour without you.” Dorothea giggled, skipping past her and out of the door. “Okay... text me if you need anything.” Edelgard said, almost sadly. 

Dorothea furrowed her brow and smiled softly, gently running her hand down Edelgard’s arm. “_I’ll see you soon._” She mouthed before walking down the hallway. 

Edelgard sighed to herself in the darkness of her room, it wasn’t pitch black but the city lights shining in the window kept it from being that. It was one of the things she liked about this apartment, that you could see everything. 

“El?” Her mother’s soft voice called out from the doorway. “Mom?” She replied, folding her arms across her chest. Her mother walked into her room, dragging her hand across Edelgard’s jewellery box, which she’d had since she was a child. 

“I remember when you were a little girl, you were so cute and innocent, all the way up till your teens.” Her mother laughed and kept her gaze fixed on the small box. 

“When you were fourteen I found a porn magazine under your bed, I blamed your brothers for it but they denied it... now six years later, I understand.” She giggled quietly. Edelgard gulped, a lump forming in her throat.

“You’re gay... and _everyone_ knew but me, now here you are, embarrassing me-“

“Embarrassing you? You’re _embarrassed_ because I’m a lesbian?-“

“No, I’m _embarrassed_ because you’re supposed girlfriend is _activist Arnault, talk of the town_, has slept in more beds than you’ll ever know!”

“How _dare_ you, I lo-“

“Oh spare me El... just _spare me_.” Patricia said quietly, almost as if she’d never been shouting at her daughter in the first place. Edelgard stubbornly exhaled and turned her face to stare out of the window. She refused to let her mother win this one. 

“The Gautier Gala’s this weekend, you’re not bringing her with you.” Patricia said, moving over to the door and leaning against the frame. “Twenty years of age and you _still_ dictate my life...” Edelgard shook her head and sighed. 

“If you’re going to Dorothea’s, go now, just know I won’t be happy.” 

“You never are.” Edelgard hissed, grabbing some things that she needed and storming out of the apartment. 


	5. Gautier Gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One is in love   
One is unsure   
One has a darkness to them 
> 
> And the one thing they all have in common, they’re all a mess.

Sylvain stood proudly in his tuxedo, waiting outside Ingrid’s family home. Ingrid was pissed off, for a lack of a better word. Not directly at Sylvain, he looked and was acting perfect. 

“You’re thirty minutes late...” she sighed, hooking her arm within his as he offered it. Sylvain’s charming smile dropped as they were now alone in the back of the town car. 

“The stupid _fucking_ driver was late, then he took me to the dorms-“

“Whoa, calm down...” Ingrid said softly, placing her hands on his shoulders, mildly aware of the city lights passing them by outside of the car. 

“Sorry... I’m just annoyed that Miklan’s coming, even though he’s tried to kill me twice, and have me killed. Do you know you he once crushed up apple seeds and put it in my drink-“

“Sylvain, _breathe_.” Ingrid shook his shoulders again, shaking him lightly. She began breathing deep and gesturing him to do the same, exhaling just as deeply. She had him do it a few times over before he eventually calmed down. 

“Who’s coming tonight that we know?” Ingrid questioned, hoping that would help him stay calm. “Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, Hilda, Marianne, Lorenz and Mercedes.- a bunch of people, we know a lot of socialites.” Sylvain said, not stopping for a breath. 

“Right, so plenty of people to keep you occupied and away from your psychotic brother and overbearing father.” Ingrid flashed her best award-winning smile. 

Sylvain sighed blissfully, gently cupping her face. “Thank you for coming with me, you look amazing by the way-“

“I’ll let you away with your flirting tonight, so make the most of it.” She winked, the glitter on her eyelid twinkling in the dim light of the car. 

“Is that so? Now I can say all the things I want to without you smacking me over the head, you might smack my ass if I’m lucky-“

“You’re pushing it.”

“Okay, I’ll tone it down.” Sylvain chuckled lightly, running a hand through his hair. He noticed the car coming to a stop and looked out the window past Ingrid, to see his father and brother waiting for him. 

“Shit... they’re out there.” He hissed, slightly enraged that they could barely wait for him to arrive. “I’ve got an idea, are they still looking?” Ingrid said, a wicked smile on her face. 

“Yes... why?” He said, his eyes flicking from his family to Ingrid. “Kiss me-“

Without another thought he cupped Ingrid’s face, kissing her with abandon, causing her to yelp as he loomed over her in the car seat. The sound of the car door opening didn’t stop him, he wanted his family to see, and knew they’d be forced to watch. 

“Ahem, Sylvain!” Sylvain heard his father boom. Sylvain slowly pulled back from Ingrid, really making a show of whatever passion he was showing off. “Sorry dad, I didn’t see you there.” He said nonchalantly. 

He stepped out of the car, reaching his hand out for Ingrid to take as she exited the car with him. “Well... I’m glad to see you came. Behave while you’re here.” His father warned before walking back inside, his brother trudging alongside him. 

“Nice plan, and nice lips-“

“Again, tone it down-“

“I’m sorry, that ‘_fuck you_’ to my dad got me super jazzed up.” Sylvain said excitedly, holding his arm out for Ingrid to take. She giggled as she took his arm and they both walked inside. 

_____________________________________

Dimitri sat twiddling his thumbs, soaking in the awkward yet hostile silence between his stepmother and Edelgard. His father seemed to be feeling the same thing, as he looked at him and puffed his cheeks, exhaling for a long time. 

He glanced over at Edelgard, who was staring blankly at her phone, completely ignoring her mother’s disapproving gaze. Dimitri watched as she tapped away, mesmerised by the soft tapping of her nails against the screen. 

“El, I hope you’re not going to do this the whole evening.” Patricia sighed, leaning over to pinch something off of Edelgard’s dress with her nails. “I’m not doing anything.” Edelgard rolled her eyes and childishly turned away from her mother. 

**Dorothea:** any stuffy rich guys tried to hit on u yet? 

**Edelgard:** i’m not even there yet 

**Dorothea:** uuuggghhh basically everyone except me is at that gala, it’s so boring 

**Edelgard:** I wish you could’ve came 

**Dorothea:** hmmmmmmm

Edelgard narrowed her eyes at her phone, she knew Dorothea was up to something, but whatever it was, she wasn’t complaining. 

The car came to a stop and the family piled out of it and onto the sidewalk, Edelgard going on ahead of them as soon as she spotted Hubert and Ferdinand. Almost as if on cue, Claude, Hilda and Marianne joined them. 

Feeling left out, Dimitri started over only to to be stopped by a hand grabbing at his shoulder. He turned to see Mercedes, her smile beaming at him. “I thought you didn’t attend this sort of thing?” Dimitri said, politely, still walking towards the group whilst talking to her. 

“Yes, but some plans I was holding out for fell through.” Mercedes sighed and went oddly silent. 

It seemed like this would be a long evening.

_____________________________________

Inside the venue was just as bad as the car ride, but fortunately Edelgard had her father and Hubert at the table with her. At the table also sat Ferdinand and his father, Caspar and his family, and an empty seat that was meant for... she didn’t actually know. 

“Edelgard, I saw you skipped training last night, was something wrong?” Ferdinand said, a smug grin on his face. “No, I was at Dorothea’s, and before you say anything, _shut up_.” Edelgard growled, sinking in her chair out of sheer boredom and rage. 

“You’re mom called to tell me everything, are you okay?” Her father asked, almost thankful that he could talk to her instead of the other people his age at the table. “Honestly, no, I’m annoyed that I can’t bring Dorothea and that I couldn’t just stay home.” Edelgard furrowed her brow, but was unable to keep her annoyed expression as she looked at her father. 

“You’re mom’s word isn’t law-“

“She told the security to _kick her out_ if she turned up, and because she’s a known activist, they complied.” Edelgard explained, flying hand gestures as she spoke. Suddenly Edelgard and her father felt hands gripping at their shoulders and someone came down to lean between them. 

“Hold up, you’re Mom _banned_ Dorothea from coming?!” Claude said, a quizzical look on his face. “Yeah, and whilst you’re here Dimitri’s at the bar.” She half smiled, knowing that’s what he was coming to ask. 

“Thank you, I felt like a creep looking around at everybody.” He said, exhaling in relief before walking off. Hubert squirmed in his seat, feeling weirdly unusual in this setting. Clearly Edelgard felt him squirm as she was sat right next to him. 

“I’m gonna go get drinks, are you two wanting anything?” Ferdinand asked, standing behind his chair. “I’ll come with you.” Hubert said, standing and immediately walking off with him. Hubert quietly ushered for Ferdinand to walk faster. 

As they approached the bar he rolled his eyes at the lack of people there, which meant they wouldn’t be there long. “Is it just me or is there a lot of tension in here?” Ferdinand asked, leaning against the bar. 

“Yeah, well you’re mostly just feeling the tension between Edelgard and her mother, it’s truly astonishing that they’ve somehow made it awkward for people that don’t even know them.” Hubert chuckled dryly and reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, which he then remembered he’d left at the table. 

“Why do you need your phone when you are with _me_?” Ferdinand smiled and leaned on the back of his hand. “You’re not exactly a great conversationalist Ferdinand.” Hubert said, flicking his hair out of his eyes. 

“What?!” Ferdinand said, completely flabbergasted at this accusation. “I’m plenty of fun- in fact, bartender, give me ten shots-“

“Ferdinand please don’t-“

“_Ten_ shots please bartender!”

_____________________________________

Hilda swooned over Marianne, this being her first chance to flaunt her girlfriend at an event, she took full advantage. She took extra care to always make sure she held onto Marianne’s hand under the watch of random guys who stared, and made a show of kissing her in front of a overly flirty bartender. 

Know what, maybe she was just extremely protective.

Hilda watched as Marianne chatted with her father, she was leaning against one of the pillars next to the dance floor, not wanting to part with her for too long. 

“You’re awfully jealous.” She heard someone say to the side of her. Hilda rolled her eyes and tried not to squeeze her glass, tilting her head to see the offender. “Are you just going to stand there and stalk her whilst she’s not with you?” Lorenz said, a smug smile on his face. 

“Are you just going to stand there and judge me? _Don’t you have a life_?” Hilda said snidely, flocking her hair over her shoulder before taking a sip from her glass. “I’ll have you know there are plenty of woman here who would love to be on my arm.” Lorenz chirped, resting his arm on the pillar. 

“After ruling out everyone we know and their families that leaves... middle aged to elderly woman. Are you into _milf’s_ Lorenz?” 

“Okay fine, I was only trying to make conversation, but I’ll just go. But a word of advice, being this clingy won’t end well for you.” Lorenz said in a hushed tone before walking away. 

Hilda flipped him off behind his back and muttered “Yeah fuck off, giving me advice on something he knows nothing about, what an asshole.” She turned her head and went right back to casually watching Marianne giggling at something her father said. 

“God, what the hell am I doing?” She muttered before downing the rest of her wine and closed her eyes, rethinking her life up till this point. How’d she end up here, stalking her own girlfriend, when there was plenty of people she could be talking to. 

“Hilda?” Marianne’s soft voice called out, seemingly inches away from her. Hilda opened her eyes, mildly embarrassed that Marianne had came over to her because she was standing alone. 

“Hey... what was your dad talking about?” Hilda said in an attempt to hide her tipsy, awkward thoughts. “I was just telling him about you, thank you for hanging back instead of coming over to talk to him. I was nervous enough as it was.” Marianne said sheepishly and twiddled with her necklace. 

The tension in Hilda’s muscles subsided when she said that, Marianne had totally trusted her and misunderstood Hilda watching over her. When she put it like that, it’s was truly a blessing. 

“Let’s go get a drink...” Hilda breathed, grabbing Marianne’s hand and standing on her tiptoes to kiss her cheek. Marianne suddenly got a strange boost of confidence. It was as though having Hilda holding her hand, showing off that she was hers, was a strange ego boost. Maybe she shouldn’t drink...

“Marianne, what’re you drinking?” Hilda asked as she led her towards the bar. “Um, just water.” Marianne said meekly.

“Do you want another glass of wine?” 

“Yes...” she admitted weakly. Hilda giggled and turned away to order their drinks. In the split second that she did, Claude appeared, looking so unbelievably excited about... something. 

“Hey, Marianne, check it, I just saved Edelgard’s night.” Claude said excitedly, scrambling to pull out his phone. “_Jesus_ Claude, are you drunk already?” Hilda asked, handing a glass to Marianne who was currently concerned for Claude. 

“Shhhh, _shhhh_, _shut up_, just look.” He said and shoved his phone in front of them. What ensued was a long series of texts between Claude and Dorothea. Claude encouraged Dorothea to get dressed up and he would come pick her up. 

“Claude, you’re clearly not sober enough to drive, nobody here is, that’s why we have drivers.” Hilda sighed, actually disappointed that this plan was a dud. 

The boys face sank and he pouted; looking as if he was about to cry. “Okay, well before I go back over and ‘_wow_’ Dimitri, I need to go to the bathroom.” He said before literally sprinting off. 

“Do you think he’s-“

“Yeah he’s definitely high.”

_____________________________________

Dimitri couldn’t say he was happy being around so many rich, drunk, idiots. However, it didn’t help that the only sober people were his family, excluding Edelgard. He wondered how she hadn’t been thrown out yet as she’d requested an entire bottle of whiskey to herself. 

So here he was, holding up his stepsister as she continued to chug the glass bottle, successfully making a fool of herself in front of everyone. It wasn’t as if anyone else cared, they were just as bad, the only difference was she was walking around with a bottle opposed to a glass. 

“Edelgard, are you sure you don’t want to go-“

“_No_, I’m gonna stay here, and _she_-“ she pointed accusingly at her mother “is gonna stop dictating shit in my life!” Edelgard slurred, wobbling into Dimitri’s chest. Dimitri looked at his stepmother, who’s was pretending she wasn’t listening to Edelgard. 

Dimitri searched around the room for an escape, he needed to go meet Claude, but right now that seemed like a mere wish.

Suddenly, Edelgard weight was being lifted off of him and he looked to see Hubert wrapping Edelgard’s arm around his neck. “I’ll take her, it wouldn’t be fair otherwise.” He smirked, walking off with her. 

“Go get your boyfriend D’mitri, unless Patricia has something to say about that as well!” Edelgard said as she was dragged off. Dimitri blushed and shook his head. 

This was going to be a long night. 

_____________________________________

“Sylvain!”

“Go fuck yourself!” Sylvain cried, and the sound of something getting thrown and smashing could be heard. 

Ingrid was listening from outside the private suite of the venue they were in. Sylvain had gone in there, thinking it would be a quite space to sit and talk to her, but his brother was there. Domineering Sylvain.

“Fuckin’ freeloader, living on dad’s couch and leeching off everyone around you!” Sylvain yelled and she caught a glimpse of his enraged face, pointing at his brother from across the room. 

It was undeniable that the two hated each other. In fact, they’re not allowed to be in a room together, because it always ends in violence. By chance they’ve ended up alone together and if Ingrid didn’t put a stop to it now, one of them would end up seriously injured. 

So Ingrid decided to take the moral high ground and threw the door to the suite open, walking inside, declaring her presence to the two men. Sylvain had a smug look on his face as he reached out to Ingrid, tugging her over to him. 

“This weeks bitch is the Galatea girl-“

** _SMASH!_ **

Sylvain in an instant had picked up one of the glasses off of the table and thrown it at Miklan, only barely missing him and smashing the glass off of the wall instead. 

His brother took the hint and left. 

Ingrid’s heart was pounding. She wasn’t that used to such violence, but the more she was around Sylvain, the more aggression she was exposed to. It was exciting in a way; a way she couldn’t quite explain.

He was kind of like that man Stanley in the play Dorothea was acting in.

She looked up at Sylvain, his throat bobbing as he swallowed thickly and looked down at her. He let out a strangled whimper and leaned his head against hers, Ingrid’s hand gently came up to cup his jaw. 

“Sorry...” he said shakily, laughing nervously as he cuddled into her waist, pressing a small kiss to the crown of her head. “It’s fine, just as long as you’re okay.” She said, running her hand along the curve of his back. 

“Do you want a drink?” He asked, reluctantly letting go of her and walking to the suite’s own private bar. “Yeah, why not.” She giggled, following him over and sitting at the other side of the bar. 

He carefully poured her... whatever that expensive looking bottle was. He passed it over the bar to her and leaned underneath, pulling out a beer bottle, which he opened with his teeth. 

“Crazy how sturdy those glasses are, they barely smashed.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, _I’m just saying_ that the prick deserved it-“

“Sylvain, I don’t want to dance around anything with you anymore, just tell me what you want to say.” Ingrid said demandingly, picking up her glass as if she was ready to leave. The words were suddenly caught in Sylvain’s throat; unable to do anything more than blink dumbly at her. 

“When you’re ready to finally open up, come and get me.” She sighed and stood up, actually leaving. 

He smacked the bottle down on the countertop long after she’d left, cracking the bottle as he did so. 

He was deep down the rabbit hole...

_____________________________________

Hilda and Marianne watched Dimitri trying and failing to open the bathroom door. They both raised their eyebrows at each other and walked over.

“Dimitri? What’re you doing?” Marianne asked politely, awkwardly twisting her head in an attempt to see if the door was opened or not. “Claude said he went to the bathroom but that was a while ago, now the door’s locked.” He said, a sheepish grin on his face. 

Hilda rolled her eyes and handed her glass to Marianne. “Stand back.” She demanded and Dimitri did as he was told, taking several steps back from the door. With one swift kick Hilda bust open the door, the handle hanging by a thread. 

“Thank you!” She said as she took her glass back from Marianne and continued inside of the bathroom, Marianne and Dimitri in awe following behind her. 

“_**CLAAAUUUDE- JESUS!**_” She cried out as she saw Claude leaning over the sink, taking what looked to be a line of cocaine. “_God dammit_, where the hell’d you get that shit?!” Hilda cried, pulling him up and off of the ground. 

“Miklan- but that’s besides the point, Dimitri you can drive right?!” Claude said excitedly, practically bouncing out of his skin. Dimitri nodded “Yes, why? What’re you scheming?” Dimitri was certain this would end badly. 

“Fantastic! Well then there’s no time, we gotta go pick up Dorothea-“

“Claude, my stepmother will literally hang both of us by our balls-“

“Don’t threaten me with a good time! C’mon we gotta go get her!” He said, dragging Dimitri out of the door. Hilda and Marianne had no choice but to follow after him, intrigued by what was going to happen next. 

The four of them stood outside next to the parked cars, Dimitri clicking his car keys to see which car he could hijack for an hour. It was strangely freeing and exciting, knowing that he was participating in one of Claude’s schemes made him giddy. 

He finally found a car that matched his keys and they all piled inside, Claude recording stuff for his Instagram the entire time. This was where it would get fun. Because there was no backing out, the plan was in motion. 

The car was also in motion, already speeding over the motorway and into the city, ready and willing to pick up Dorothea for this gesture as grand as the horse running across the football field... maybe this was just a thing that Claude liked to do. 

The car came to a halt outside of the dormitory and the door popped open, a radiant Dorothea entering the car and sitting next to Marianne. Everyone visibly showed that Dorothea looked gorgeous in her crimson wrap dress, her makeup and hair looking natural yet amazing, and the gold jewellery just topping everything off. 

“What’re you guys staring at?! Let’s go get my girl!” Dorothea yelled and Dimitri slammed his foot down on the accelerator, they were off again. 

“Wait, how the hell are we gonna get her inside? The place is crawling with security.” Hilda said, casually cradling Marianne in her arms. “It’s cool, me and Dimitri will distract them whilst you guys get her inside-“

“_We will?!_”

“Yeah, you signed yourself up for this adventure-“

“No, _you_ signed me up, _forcibly_!” Dimitri said, completely confused and scared out of his mind, but excited at the same time. The thought of danger was a real turn on for him. 

“Dimitri, if you bail on us now I’ll fucking kill you.” Dorothea said, a dark sinister look on her face. “I wasn’t planning too...” Dimitri pouted, unable to see what he was in the bad guy in all of this. 

They finally got to parking the car outside of the venue and if Dimitri wasn’t nervous before, he sure was now. 

Marianne and Hilda walked in front of Dorothea as to hide her from any prying eyes. Meanwhile Claude dragged Dimitri by the hand to the patch of grass to the side of the door. It was swarmed by security and press, a perfect spot. 

“Whatever I do, just go with it.” Claude said, pushing his hair back, wanting to look his best for scandal. “R-Right, I’m ready.” Dimitri whispered almost too formally. 

Claude gripped onto the back of Dimitri’s head and kissed him forcibly. The press swarmed around them, almost hitting them in the face with their cameras. This caused all security in the area to go rushing towards them. 

Relieved, Hilda and Marianne led Dorothea inside of the venue. 

_____________________________________

Edelgard was laughing at something and nothing when her mother grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from her friends. 

“What is _she_ doing here? I told you not to embarrass me!” Her mother growled and pointed towards Dorothea who was looking extremely lost in the middle of the room. 

Without thinking, Edelgard’s body moved on its own, walking towards Dorothea, but her mother’s grip was still steadfast on her arm. “Let go of me...” Edelgard said, a fire lit in her eyes that her mother was unaware could be lit. 

“Edelgard, I won’t let you embarrass-“ She cut herself off, completely mortified that Edelgard had tugged herself free and was now drunkenly stumbling towards her lover in the midst of the entire event. 

Dorothea’s eyes lit up when she spotted Edelgard making her way towards her, giggling at the drunk girls blushed cheeks. Edelgard laughed as eventually she got to Dorothea, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other around her neck to support herself. 

She sloppily kissed Dorothea, said girl tasting the alcohol on her lips, making it all the more intoxicating. It was a public display of affection that nobody would forget for a while, since everyone in the gala had their phones out taking videos and pictures whilst others let out low wolf-whistles. It was their way of letting people know who they were to each other now. 

Patricia was mortified and could be seen angrily consulting Dimitri who had just entered the building again. 

Edelgard pulled back from Dorothea, but still leaned herself against her in fear that she might fall from her drunken stupor. “How much have you drank?” Dorothea laughed, her giggle melodic and gentle. 

“A bottle of whiskey... thank you for coming.” Edelgard said, an uncontrollable smile spread across her face. “Yeah well, one of us had to do the grand gesture, and you know I love the spotlight.” Dorothea giggled that same melodic giggle again that warmed Edelgard’s heart. 

All Edelgard could think about was three words she’d been meaning to say for months, but knew she would never have the courage to say it, but here, she could always blame the alcohol. 

“Well here’s the next one...” she gulped and cupped Dorothea’s cheek, the girl’s eyes widening as she did so. “I love you, and you’re all I think about when I’m not with you... and I’ve never said that in so many words before.”

Dorothea stared at her, completely dumbfounded by her declaration. It was definitely expected, but she didn’t know she would feel as if her heart was going to explode after she said it. 

“You love me...?”

“I love you.”

“_You love me?! Dorothea Arnault?!_” She giggled uncontrollably. 

“I love you, Dorothea Arnault.” Edelgard declared again, a bright smile on her face, and not a shred of dishonesty about her. 

“Oh Edie....” She breathed, kissing her again. It was cut short as someone was tugging at Edelgard’s arm pulling her away. She looked to see her mother, dragging her away, and it looked as if there was no escape this time. 

Hilda jogged over to Dorothea, accompanied by Claude, and the two of them quickly escorted Dorothea out before security got to her first. 

“_Mom let go_-“

“No, we’re going home, you’ve made a fool of yourself, and me, and you’re father!” 

“Go fuck yourself!” Edelgard yelled in an attempt to rebel, but Instead she was stuffed into the back seat of some stuffy town car, ready to be taken home and punished for her actions. 

She didn’t care, she was drunk on love.... and whiskey- mostly whiskey. 

Dimitri stood, completely dumbfounded but smitten with the act he had just participated in. 

“Hey man, what’s going on?” Sylvain asked with a sad sigh and clamped a hand onto Dimitri’s shoulder. “A lot... I best go before Edelgard and her mother kill each other, sorry about all this.” He said politely before quickly leaving. 

“No it’s fine, I didn’t need or want any emotional support.” Sylvain mumbled into his glass. 

_____________________________________

“Are you sure you’ll be fine?” 

“Yeah, totes! Just check in on me in the morning.” Claude said before literally falling into his room. Hilda paid no mind to him and continued to go along the corridor and into her room room. 

Marianne had went on ahead of her and enjoyed the silence in her room, compared to her dorm which was next door to Dorothea. It was... a complicated mess of different sounds. Marianne’s eyesight got a little hazy and she stumbled forward slightly, her footing a little off because of the heels and carpet beneath her. The alcohol didn’t help either. 

She reached back to undo the zip on her dress but it was no use, she would need help... no she didn’t she just wanted Hilda to take it off of her. She couldn’t lie to herself, she was a terrible liar. Marianne began giggling madly, stumbling forward again because of her laughter. 

“What’s so funny?” Hilda giggled, closing the door behind her. “N-Nothing.” Marianne managed to say through her laughs, letting out a small ‘oof’ as she fell onto the bed. Hilda giggled and kicked her heels off, strolling over to Marianne. 

Marianne bravely reached her hands out, grabbing at Hilda’s thighs and pulling her into her lap. “I think I like drunk Marianne...” Hilda giggled and ran her hands down the other girls shoulders. “You’re really pretty...” Marianne mumbled, trailing her hands up Hilda’s back. 

Hilda slowly tugged the zip on Marianne’s dress down, sliding the straps off of her shoulders. Marianne nuzzled her face into the crook of Hilda’s neck, kissing down to her collarbone. “Did you lock the door-“

“Yes and I’m so glad I did.” Hilda sighed blissfully and continued to try and slide the rest of Marianne‘s dress off. “Wait, let’s have the gin I have-“

“_Hilda_-“

“_Stop whining_, we’ve got all night!” 

_____________________________________

Sylvain sat on the steps outside of the venue, watching as everyone was leaving. The only thing that comforted him was the lonely moon staring down at him, and the frosty winter air that hugged his form. 

“Sylvain?” A soft voice asked from behind him, but he was certain everyone except him had left. He turned to see Mercedes, kneeling to sit beside him on the cold stone steps. “Aren’t you going home?” She asked, clutching onto her purse. 

“I’m just thinking... that’s all.” He said solemnly, not wanting to reveal anything more. “Sylvain.” She said firmly, reaching out to gently rub his shoulder. “Don’t bottle it up, I remember it didn’t help back in high school.” She said softly.

Oh he remembered that, he remembered their long, deep talks back in their high school days. “Well, here’s the thing, I don’t know if I’m ready for a relationship, but I know Ingrid wants one. I don’t know if I can just... give in like that.” Sylvain said wistfully, leaning his elbows on his knees. 

“It’s better to give in and have someone to rely on, the only thing you’re missing is casual sex, which I know you have a... troubled history with.” Mercedes sighed, looking away from him. Sylvain had to admit, he got a sadistic power trip from sleeping with whoever he liked. He didn’t know if he could be soft. 

“I’ll drive you back to the dorms, come.” Mercedes said, quickly standing and offering her hand to him. He took it and let her pull him up, helping him down into the car. 

He didn’t want to go home yet, but he didn’t have a choice. He never really did. 

_____________________________________

“I told you- I _begged_ you not to embarrass me, but here you are, wasted, and thousands of people are seeing videos of you and that... _woman_!” 

“I don’t know how many times I can tell you, I’m not going to let you dictate anything I do, and that woman is who I’m in _love_ with-“

“Edelgard, there’s so many brilliant woman out there-“

“Yes, and Dorothea is the best of them!” Edelgard insisted, balancing herself on her bedpost as she wobbled around drunkenly. She’d been going in circles, arguing with her mother since they got back. She’d even packed her bags and was ready to go. She was just waiting on the word.

“Edelgard, this is the last time I’m going to ask you, _please don’t do this_.” Patricia begged, her infuriated eyes boring holes through Edelgard’s soul. “No, now I’m going to Dorothea’s, you’ll see our sex tape in the morning-“

“That’s it, take your stuff and don’t come back, I’m done! Go live with your girlfriend!” Patricia screamed, a blurry mess of hand gestures being thrown at Edelgard, which she couldn’t quite make out from her hazy eyesight. 

“I will, and I’ll do just fine!” Edelgard screeched, picking up her bags and stumbling out of the room. She had anticipated being kicked out, she only needed Dorothea’s approval now.

As she tumbled through the hallway, trudging down the stairs with her bags of clothes, documents, accessories, everything she’d ever owned in that room really. “Um, Edelgard, do you need me to drive you?” Dimitri asked, almost as if he’d been waiting around to ask that. 

“Yes, please D’mitri.” She slurred, and he took her bags, swinging one of her arms around his neck in one swift movement. He carried her down into her car, driving her all the way to the dormitories. As much as she complained about Dimitri, she would always be grateful for the things he did for her.

Dimitri quietly, carried her bags up to the dorms, Edelgard carefully following behind him. When he said his goodbyes and turned to leave, he was stopped by Edelgard’s arms wrapping around his waist. “Thank you...” she mumbled, barely audible. 

He smiled gently and twisted in her embrace, hugging her back. 

She turned back to the door fumbling with her keys to open the door, squinting her hazy eyes to try and open it up. When Edelgard finally did get the door open, she stumbled inside, almost swinging off of the door handle. 

Dorothea looked up at her, a little confused but excited nonetheless to see her girlfriend. “My Mom kicked me out, so... would it be alright if I stayed here? Just for a little-“

“Edie, you can stay here for as _looong_ as you want~” Dorothea sang, skipping across the room and pressing a chaste kiss to Edelgard’s nose. “Go lie down my drunken princess.” Dorothea giggled, guiding her ‘princess’ over to the bed, helping her lie down. 

Edelgard watched as Dorothea brought her bags in, opting to leave her things inside their bags, but stashed in the wardrobe to keep the place tidy. She locked the door as she brought in the last bag, sighing happily. 

Dorothea turned to go back to the bed, but was met with Edelgard sloppily undressing herself, her own way of getting ready for bed which was much messier than Dorothea. She then decided that it would be a great idea to sit a bucket next to the bed. 

Dorothea climbed into her side of the bed, catching glimpses of Edelgard’s now naked form under the covers as she climbed under. She twisted around to face Edelgard, said girl smiling and curling up agains’t Dorothea, pressing sloppy kisses against her lips. Each one tasting like the alcohol that had drive half of her bold actions tonight. 

“I love you...” Edelgard whispered, pressing kisses along Dorothea’s neck. Dorothea used the bliss she was in as an excuse not to reply to her. 

She felt terrible about it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had sm fun writing this and I had to get a chapter up before I go out partying and completely forget that I have a fic I’m dedicated to.


	6. Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place the morning after the gala, antics ensue.

Edelgard awoke to the worst headache she’d _ever_ had in her life, accompanied by the aching of her legs but... that was a different reason entirely. Her memory was hazy from the night before, but she remembered the major parts.

Like how she’d have have to get used to waking up to the gorgeous fragrances coming from Dorothea’s collection of perfumes, but she assumed that wouldn’t be a problem. She couldn’t do much lying in her stomach, but she could at least hug Dorothea. 

She slowly turned her head, sprawling her limbs out across the bed until they bumped against the girl next to her. She reached her arm and leg over Dorothea, pulling her into hug that would put a bear to shame. 

Dorothea giggled as Edelgard did so, clearly she was already awake, but that didn’t stop her. Dorothea twirled in Edelgard’s grasp to face her, tracing her leg up Edelgard’s own, resting at the top of her thigh. “You’re finally up.” She giggled, stroking Edelgard’s hair.

“_I’m never drinking again..._” Edelgard grumbled, burying her face in the comfort of Dorothea’s neck. “You’ve got to get up soon, you have that board meeting...” Dorothea reminded her, her fingertips danced absently up and down Edelgard’s bare back. 

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell them I know next to nothing about fashion _and_ have zero fashion sense.” Edelgard frowned, wishing she could just leave herself buried in Dorothea for the rest of the day. 

“I’ll pick your outfit-“

“Dorothea, I’m a grown woman-“

“A grown woman with terrible taste, if it were up to you, there’d be excessive amounts of red everywhere.” Dorothea giggled and attempted to wriggle out of Edelgard’s grip. She ended up getting stuck further. 

“I’m just gonna lie here.”

“Edie, I need to go to my rehearsal.” Dorothea giggled, trying to hide her slight annoyance directed towards her girlfriends overly affectionate state. Edelgard rolled over and stumbled up out of bed, rubbing her disheveled hair. 

“Fine... fine I’ll just get showered and go-“ Edelgard threw her hand over her mouth and sprinted into the bathroom. Dorothea could hear her vomiting violently from in the room. She sighed and sprinted after her. 

She reached out her hand out, holding back Edelgard’s hair and gently ran her hands through it. “You really shouldn’t have drank that much...” Dorothea mumbled, swiping more strands of Edelgard’s hair out the way. 

Edelgard leaned her head against the toilet seat, her head spinning from what she’d just thrown up. “Liquid courage, all for you.” She almost sang, her head bobbling on the ceramic seat. 

Almost as if by a miracle chance, Edelgard’s phone pinged from in the bedroom. “I’ll get that for you.” Dorothea said, making sure Edelgard was stable before she walked away. She could hear a audible ‘tsk’ as she did so. 

She picked up her phone inspecting the thousands of notifications that had been silenced. Dorothea was shocked to see that there were thousands of magazine articles and social media posts of her and Edelgard at the gala. 

Out of all the notifications, only one was an actual text.

**Dad:** Board meeting cancelled, paparazzi are determined to get to you and Dorothea, should probably get away from campus for a week or two

Dorothea’s jaw dropped. This was pressure. _Real_ pressure. She could actually feel it clamping down on her heart. It didn’t help that Edelgard was so full of euphoria from her love confession and completely hungover, so she couldn’t have a real talk about all of this. 

“Edie, your dad said the board meetings cancelled.” Dorothea called out as she quietly moved over to the window, peaking through the blinds to see paparazzi standing outside the campus. “Thank god, I’m not fit to go anywhere.” Edelgard yelled back. 

Dorothea moved to the doorway, leaning against it. “Your... _stunt_ is on the front cover of every magazine.”

“Good.” 

“There’s also paparazzi everywhere outside.”

“You love the spotlight-“

“**_EDIE_**.... _Edie_ this is a little... too personal.” Dorothea snapped, clutching Edelgard’s phone in her hand, her heart pounding in her chest. “Sorry...” Edelgard sighed, her head falling into her hands as she still leaned against the toilet. 

“They’re not gonna go away, so the only thing I can do is offer to take us off campus.” Edelgard said, her head thumping from the hangover she was trying to nurse.

“That’s fine, as long as I’m with you and we can go back to private moments alone.” Dorothea huffed, shaking out her hair. Edelgard nodded and helped herself up. “Are you gonna be okay missing classes for a while?” Edelgard asked, steadying herself on the sink. 

“That’s fine, I’ll just get the professor to email some stuff.” Dorothea said, watching as Edelgard wobbled across the bathroom. “Great, well then let’s pack some stuff and see if we can get out of here.” Edelgard smiled, and ran her hand down Dorothea’s arm. 

Dorothea was ashamed she couldn’t say three simple words to someone so amazing. 

_____________________________________

Marianne woke with gentle breaths tickling her neck, a surprisingly strong arm wrapped around her waist, and a little embarrassed at the thought of the night before. 

She knew it was a natural thing and it was something she’d definitely do again, but she was still embarrassed. Marianne couldn’t help but sink into Hilda’s embrace, it was so warm and inviting. She just couldn’t help it. 

Hilda pressed a kiss to Marianne’s neck and cuddled into Marianne’s waist. She was really making the most of this. “Are you awake?” Hilda whispered, rubbing her thumb in a circle on Marianne’s stomach. 

“Yeah...” Marianne whispered back and twisted around to face Hilda. “How’re you still so _cute_ even when you’ve just woke up?” Hilda cooed, pressing her nose against the other girl’s. Marianne giggled and took the initiative, pressing her soft lips against Hilda’s.

Hilda, filled with a quiet euphoria, smiled and leaned over Marianne, turning into a full make out. With Hilda looming over her, her pink hair draping down over her face, Marianne had flashbacks to the night before. 

The thought of Hilda, sweaty, rutting against her, her mouth kissing and biting her neck, turned her face beet red. It also turned Marianne on to no end. Marianne leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Hilda’s neck. She bit Hilda’s lip as she pulled away-

“_Shit_!”

“S-Sorry, did I-“

“No, no, not you, Claude!”

“Claude?”

“Yeah, I need to go check up on him!” Hilda said, scrambling around to get out from under the covers. Marianne somehow got more turned on by the sight of Hilda, completely naked, rapidly putting on whatever clothes he could find. 

“Sorry, I’ll be back in a few minutes!” Hilda said before sprinting out the door and down the hallway, barging into Claude’s room. 

Hilda was met with the sight of Claude, lying upside down on the bed, the covers in complete disarray. Actually the entire room was in complete disarray. “Jesus, Claude, this place is a mess!” Hilda yelled and picked up a discarded shoe on the floor, tossing it at him. 

Claude didn’t budge, he just continued to snore and roll in the mess of covers. Outraged, Hilda stormed into the kitchen, grabbing a cup and filling it with water. She stormed over to the bed and threw the water over his face. 

“**_WHOA-_**“

“**_GET UP YOU DICK!_**” 

“**DON’T SHOUT AT ME LIKE THAT!**” Claude yelled and bounced up into a squat, scratching the back of his neck.

“For a start, stop showing off how flexible and well balanced you are. Secondly, you’re _ruining_ the best morning ever.” Hilda whined, looking as if she could throw a tantrum right there in the middle of the room. 

“_Dude_ just go then-“

“No, _because_ I love and care for you, so I have to look after you!” Hilda screeched in the most heartfelt then. Tears began to stream from Claude’s eyes “Hilda, I love you so much.” 

The sight somehow caused Hilda to start crying as well and she rushed forward into Claude’s embrace. “I love you too Claude!” She bawled, both of their tears running down their cheeks. 

They both looked up as they heard the door quietly creak open. Sothis stood in the doorway, visibly cringing at them as she leaned against the doorframe. “I was just coming to tell you the dorms are on lockdown because of the paparazzi outside.” She said, still cringing at them. 

“Okay... I’ll have to go down to appease my fans-“

“They’re here for Edelgard.” 

“They’re _my_ fans!”

“_Okay_ crazy...” Sothis giggled before walking away. Claude let go of Hilda and stood up to compose himself. “I need to go.” Claude said before dramatically walking out of his own dorm. Hilda wiped her eyes and shook her head. 

It only took her a moment to get back to her room, which had smoke bellowing out of it-

“**_MARIANNE!_**” Hilda yelled as she burst into her room, searching frantically for her girlfriend. Marianne stood in the kitchen, attempting to put out a fire on the frying pan. “I was making us breakfast but... it didn’t go well.” Marianne said meekly, running to open the windows before the alarm was set off. 

Hilda quickly put out the small fire, wiping her brow in relief after she did so. 

“Marianne?”

“Y-Yeah?”

“Let’s get dressed and go get breakfast, my treat.” 

_____________________________________

Sylvain skulked around the dormitories, moving from dorm, to cafeteria, to lounge. He didn’t benefit from doing this, but he liked to do it anyway. It didn’t make him happy. Just calm. 

He flipped himself over to stare at the inside of the lounge’s sofa. “Sylvain?” He heard a soft voice call out for him. He huffed and pressed his face into the sofa. “_What?_” He groaned and reached his hand back to scratch his ass. 

“Sylvain, you can’t just lie here like that.” She said, pulling him around and away from the inside of the sofa. He was met with Ingrid’s soft expression, her gentle hands clasping his own. “Who says I can’t?” Sylvain growled and pulled away from her. 

“You can if you’d like, but I think you’d feel better going back to your room.” Ingrid sighed and gently tugged on his arm, turning him around with ease. “Why’re you even talking to me?” Sylvain asked, a growl on his face.

“Because I care-“

“_Shut up._”

“Okay, go fuck yourself Sylvain.” Ingrid said dryly before immediately leaving him. She cared but she wouldn’t be disrespected.

He didn’t care. 

He knew that himself as he pushed himself up and chased after the first thing that came to mind. 

_____________________________________

Rhea stood, lecturing, leering, almost staring into Byleth’s soul. All the while Sothis sat next to her, completely aware that her sister was sending her girlfriends the weirdest vibes she’d ever felt. 

“How long till she’s done...” Sothis muttered, her head flopping sideways to stare out of the window. Meanwhile Rhea continued her relentless barrage of words that meant nothing to anyone but herself. 

“-Professor, do you enjoy different cuisines?” Rhea asked, although Byleth completely missed half of her lecture. “We eat out all the time or we try to cook different things, right Byleth?” Sothis said, glad that she could finally join in the conversation.

“Yeah...” Byleth trailed off, watching as Edelgard and Dorothea dashed past the door. She stood up and moved over to the door, watching the two girls sprint down the hallway. 

“What’s your favourite dish then Byleth.” 

“Well if I had to choose just one, it’d be your sisters pussy.” Byleth grinned before dashing after the two girls.

“_Byleth- Where- **UGH!**_” Sothis spluttered, completely red faced and ran after her girlfriend. 

Rhea was left confused and a little frustrated. 

Meanwhile Byleth was closing in on Edelgard, who was speeding down the corridor with Dorothea in tow. Sothis trailed behind Byleth, wondering how long she’d keep chasing them, it was tiresome. 

“Edelgard, _where_ do you think you’re going?” Byleth yelled, reaching out and grabbing Edelgard’s wrist. “We’re getting away from the press, it’s freaking Dorothea out.” Edelgard barked, yanking her arm back from Byleth. Sothis jumped in front of Byleth to butt in. 

“_Thank god_, I’ll drive-“

“What?”

“I _said_ I’ll drive, c’mon, I’m not sticking around to watch my sister flirt with my girlfriend.” Sothis shook her head and began to guide them in the opposite direction, going down to a private car park where only the staff could park their cars. 

Edelgard had a newfound respect for Sothis.

Sothis unlocked her jeep, Dorothea and Edelgard dumped their bags in the boot and hopped in the back seat. Luckily, the back windows were dark tinted, so all the pair had to do was duck down a little until they were a good while away from the vultures outside. 

“I can’t believe this is happening to me.” Dorothea sighed and leaned her head back against the seat. Edelgard smiled softly and reached her hand over to Dorothea’s. “It’ll be fine...” she said and gently squeezed her hand. 

Dorothea closed her eyes and pulled her hand away “Yeah, it’ll turn out fine....” 

Edelgard’s heart truly sank. 

_____________________________________

Claude lay alone in his room, Hilda having left to return to Marianne too long ago. The evening was fast approaching but Claude’s boredom grew with each passing second. 

He was too hungover to stream anything other than games, but he couldn’t do that alone. He’d have to call in the big guns. 

And the man that had thousands of people following him on Instagram just for fake kissing him. 

Claude flopped over, grabbing his phone, he began to call Dimitri. The phone didn’t even ring, instantly the cheese mans voice was booming over the phone. 

“_Claude_?! Hi- _Hello_, I was just about to call you.” Dimitri practically yelled. Claude withdrew his ear from the phone so he wouldn’t damage his hearing.

“Hello my prince, I just watched your sister make an escape with the lovely Dorothea and was wondering.... would you like to escape or come stream with me in Hilda’s room?” Claude asked, a daring move to use Hilda’s room in the proposal. 

“_Me_?! Stream with _you_?! Would that be alright-“

“Dimitri, I’m offering, your accepting, I’ll come get you, keep your pj’s on.” Claude said smoothly, pushing his hair back as he looked at himself in the mirror. “I-Right, okay.” Dimitri said before hanging up. 

Claude skipped down the hallway to Dimitri’s dorm room, which the other boy already stood outside. True to their word, they were both still in their pj’s as they waltzed back down the hallway. To be fair, they got some strange glances as they walked. 

“Hilda and Marianne have been making videos for me while I’ve been DIA.”

“I think you mean MIA.”

“No, DIA, _drunk in action_, duh.” Claude chuckled, Dimitri looking puzzled at his joke but chuckled nonetheless. 

Claude drew her hand back and threw it forward to chap on the door, except he didn’t chap the door and instead grabbed the handle, throwing it open and stepping inside in one swift movement. 

“**_HIIIILDAAAAA~_**” he sang and his eyes shot across the room as he heard a loud thud crashing against the floor. 

Hilda lay on the floor in just her underwear, whilst Marianne had quickly hid herself under the covers, but was peaking out to see if Hilda was okay. Hilda rubbed the back of her head and looked up at Claude in a daze.

“_**CLAUDE**_! Why the hell are you here?!” Hilda yelled, grabbing a sweatshirt for Marianne and sliding under the covers. “I need to stream and I thought we could play some minecraft... also I brought Dimitri.” Claude said and pulled Dimitri into the room. Dimitri waved shyly. 

“Minecraft... _really_?” Hilda sighed, Marianne shyly cuddling up to her back. “Yeah, everything’s already hooked up to the switch so-“

“Fiiiiine, Dimitri do you want to play?” Hilda asked as she picked up the controllers. “I’m not particularly good-“

“I’ll play then.” Hilda groaned and lay on the bed. Claude sat next to her, looking quite smug even though he was drinking Mountain Dew and spilling it over his vest. Marianne lay behind Hilda, somehow falling asleep. 

“It’s boiling in here.” Dimitri said, ruffling his hair and leaning his head on Claude’s shoulder. “Should’ve wore a vest, always be prepared.” Claude chuckled as he sat his can to the side. 

“Claude, your vest is making you look like one of those junkies that live in a trailer.” 

“Hilda, we’re streaming.”

“Why do you think I’d care about that?” 

_____________________________________

“Are you sure this is where you want dropped off?” Sothis asked, at the huge cabin she’d parked in front of. 

“Yeah, this is where we’re staying.” Edelgard gestured to Dorothea, who was trying her best to refrain from making a scene in front of their professors. “_Great_... is there another car in case we have to leave?” Dorothea asked as she and Edelgard opened the boot to get their bags. 

“Yeah, there’s one in the garage. Plus I texted my father to have the place stocked with food and there’s a cute little diner-“

“_I get it_, you’ve got me totally looked after.” Dorothea sighed and heaved her bag out of the car, which Edelgard immediately took from her without a moments hesitation. “I’ll head in with the bags.” Edelgard said, sensing that Dorothea was on the verge of an annoyed rant. 

“What’s going on with you two?” Byleth asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere to close the boot. Startled, Dorothea gripped onto her hoodie and let out a breath. “Nothing... I’m just... stressed.” She said, slowly backing away from the car to avoid this awkward conversation.

“Well to make it more stressful, I’ll e-mail you notes from your missed classes.” Byleth called out as she got back inside the car. 

Dorothea only sighed and following after Edelgard. It would be a long and painful week.

_____________________________________

** _BOOM!POOF!_ **

“**_ANNETTE!_**” Felix yelled as he burst into the room, his brow furrowed in concern. He was on his way to figure out what was wrong with Sylvain and potentially hit him with something. Just as he was passing by he heard the sounds of what he could only assume was Annette’s magic studying gone wrong. 

Turns out he was right. Annette sat in the middle of her room with her spell book wide open and a dark black patch on one of her textbooks. Annette sat with her hand the same jet black colour, pressing her fingers through her fringe which were getting tainted by the dust. 

“You should really be studying magic with a teacher, you could get hurt.” Felix lectured. He walked in and sat down on the ground next to her, picking up the burnt out book and inspecting the page she was on. 

“Yeah but it’s fine, I only cast the spell by accident.” 

“Well in that case you really should be with a teacher-“

“Shut up!” She giggled and shoved him to the side. He chuckled lowly and picked up her notebook which was miraculously unharmed by the failed spell. Annette giggled and allowed Felix to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes darting back to her books. 

“Would you mind helping me study- just for a little bit, I won’t keep you long.” Annette said shyly, her cheeks dusting pink. Felix bit his tongue. This was a real moral quarrel. On one hand he could go and check on Sylvain, on the the other he could stay and help Annette, which would be a lot more fun. 

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked it immediately out of panic. 

**Sylvain:** got some weed from claude, u coming over?

**Felix:** think I’ll pass I’ll check in on u later

If Sylvain was getting high, he didn’t want to be around. “Yeah I can just hang out, y’know.” Felix said, coughing awkwardly “If you want to that is, we could even get dinner and-“

“This is painful to watch, _yes_ Felix, we can hang out.” She giggled and began to bundle her papers up together. Felix exaggerated an exhale which she giggled at “Thank god, I was running out of things to say.” 

Annette stood up with her bundle of papers, tossing them sloppily onto her desk. As she passed by the window she caught a glimmer of a tall man with ginger hair, she definitely recognised him. She moved over to the window, searching wherever she could see for the man. He had vanished.

“Something wrong?” Felix asked as he placed the last of her things on her desk. “I thought _I_... it’s nothing, don’t worry.” She said, shaking the thoughts of the mystery man out of her head. 

“I’m gonna get changed and fix my hair, then we can go out for something to eat?” She said hopefully, moving to lean against her bathroom door. Felix nodded and watched as she gathered her clothes, moving into the bathroom to get changed. 

Felix suspiciously looked around outside and his heart dropped slightly as he made eye contact with a man, his hair the same as Annette’s, staring up at the window. The man, discovering he had been caught, quickly walked off. _Who the hell was that?_ He thought.

“Felix, my hairbrush is on the bed, could you hand me it in please?” Annette called to him. “Yeah... yeah.” He called back, frustrated that he had to lose track of whoever this man was and wherever he was going. 

If he saw that man again, he made a mental note to break his nose. 

_____________________________________

Sylvain was still staring at Felix’s text turning him down. Sylvain laughed bitterly at it and finally tossed his phone to the side. He was vaguely aware that his room stank of the joint he was smoking, but he didn’t care. 

He stood up, taking a drag from the joint in his mouth and scratching the back of his head. His room had became dark, drab and boring. It was a possibility that it was because his many nights of philandering had left his room permanently marked in shame. 

There was a sharp knock on his door, followed by it being thrown open. Sylvain scratched at his crotch and threw his hands behind his head, his muscles on full display for whoever was walking in. 

Ingrid closed the door behind her, a clear scowl on her face. She wasn’t impressed at his attempt to be a male model either. She waltzed over to him and pulled the joint out of his mouth. “What the _hell_ are you doing?! What if Seteth is wandering around and smells this?!” Ingrid barked.

“Who cares, someone as dashing as me could never be kicked-“

“Sylvain, enough, you were moping around the lounge earlier, stop acting out because you... _I don’t even know_! What’s _wrong_ with you Sylvain?!” She yelled, pushing on his chest. 

“Did you just come here to fucking lecture me?!” Sylvain snapped, his eyes burning with... Ingrid couldn’t quite tell. “Oh, _how dare I_, a person that _cares_ about _you_, come here and try to stop _you_ from making a mistake! What a terrible person I’am!” 

Sylvain ran his hand threw his hair and snatched the joint back from her hand, taking a long drag as he walked away from her. “Hey, isn’t your... being around me, disgracing Glenn-“

“Don’t you dare Sylvain, Glenn and I agreed that we’d both move on from each other-“

“Oh, your boyfriends halfway across the world, _too much work for you?_” Sylvain said mockingly, stubbing out the joint on his hand. “Stop that, you’re hurting yourself...” she said, tears beginning to form at the edge of her eyes. 

She moved over to him, gently taking his hand in hers and caressing the burn mark with her thumb. It was a great contrast to her yelling just moments ago. “What’s getting to you Sylvain?” Ingrid asked sweetly, lifting her hand up to cup his jaw. 

Sylvain’s lip quivered, the tips of his ears turning a brilliant shade of pink from the embarrassment of having someone catch onto his act. “I’m sick of people only wanting me around because I’m the rich boy... that’s all.” He sighed, a shaky, rage filled sigh. 

“That’s not all true, there’s people who want you around for you.” She said, tracing the outline of his jaw with her thumb. “Like who?” Sylvain asked, wanting more from her answer. 

“Like Dimitri, Felix... _me_.” Ingrid said softly. Sylvain couldn’t help himself, he dove down, capturing her lips. Ingrid let herself fall into him, guiding his hands to grab and caress wherever they pleased. 

Her hair splayed across the bed when Sylvain pushed her down onto it, climbing over her and tucking his face into her neck. 

Ingrid closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair and down his back. 

She was going to let this happen. If only just for tonight.

_____________________________________

Dorothea sat in the living room. In silence. The only sound was the obnoxious ticking of the grandfather clock in the hallway, that reverberated off the walls of the cabin. 

Edelgard had insisted on going out to get them some comfort food, the house seemed to be stocked with everything that was fat free for some reason. 

She was so glad that she could finally steal some private moments away with Edelgard again. Everything had been moving so fast ever since the family dinner. Which was mostly her fault for insisting to go...

Dorothea shook her head and stood up, waltzing into the kitchen. She was determined that as annoyed as she was at herself, she wouldn’t let that ruin this week. Then she thought about how annoying she was being in her huff in the car... 

“_God_... Edie I’m sorry...” she muttered, pressing two fingers to her temples. 

“Sorry for what?” Edelgard said, like Byleth she had a tendency to appear out of nowhere. Dorothea spun around with a uncontrollable grin on her face. This week would be her chance to get back on track from... whatever had just happened. 

“Sorry for being such a sour puss on the way here.” She said, reaching her hand out to take one of the plastic bags from Edelgard’s hand. She began to empty the bag onto the table, taking each item out one by one. 

Edelgard picked up two of the bottles from one of the bags and held them up victoriously. Dorothea giggled at her triumphant look over procuring two bottles of her favourite wine. “So _this_ is what took you so long.” Dorothea giggled airily, taking one of the bottles from Edelgard. 

“I can’t share any with you right now because I’m still very hungover, but I’ll get you a glass.” Edelgard said, already moving to the other side of the counter kitchen to get a glass for her. 

Dorothea went back into the living room, sinking into the comfiest sofa she’d ever sat on. It was safe to say that the cabin was barely ever lived in, due to how pristine everything looked. 

Edelgard came in with a glass in her hand and sat it down on the coffee table, taking the bottle from Dorothea’s hands to pour a glass of wine for her. She handed the glass to Dorothea, stealing a kiss as she did so, which Dorothea leaned into. “_I love you..._” Edelgard whispered as she pulled back from Dorothea. 

Dorothea bit her lip as she pulled back, a tiny smile evident in the way she bit her lip. Edelgard sighed deeply “We’re going to have to talk about it aren’t we...” 

“Talk about what?” 

“Talk about how you haven’t said it back to me yet... I’m sorry Dorothea, I _need_ to know what’s going on.” Edelgard said, the worry evident in her voice. Dorothea looked down at her glass and took a small sip before setting it aside. She supposed it was time to get serious.

“Well, I don’t not love you... it’s just that... _I’m scared._” She gulped, hoping that it would be an acceptable answer. Edelgard’s eyes widened slightly and she threw her arm over the back of the sofa cushion. 

“Scared of _what_?” She questioned, her heart skipping several beats “Scared of _me_?” Dorothea’s breath hitched. This was painful, so painful. She couldn’t bare the pain in Edelgard’s voice. 

“Scared that I’ll let myself commit to you... then you’ll break my heart.” Dorothea sighed, a tear rolling down her cheek. Edelgard reached up to wipe away the tear and cup Dorothea’s cheek. “_Dorothea_, I would never-“

“I know... Edie _believe me _I’ve thought about it a million times over, but... it still scares me.” She was crying now, pouring her heart out to the girl she loved. Edelgard gulped and pulled Dorothea into her lap, pulling her down to nip and kiss at her neck.

“Sorry, I’m spoiling the start to our week away-“

“Don’t apologise, please.” Edelgard pleaded, biting down onto Dorothea’s neck just hard enough to leave a mark. Dorothea began breathing heavier, the emotional moment making her need something hot and heavy. She leaned back ever so slightly, bucking against Edelgard’s thigh. 

Edelgard halted in her movements, her strong hands gripping onto Dorothea’s hips and her head reeled back to lean against the sofa cushion. “Dorothea, I would never hurt you, I love you so much... I even went up against my family for you.” Edelgard said, looking as if she was about to cry as well. 

Dorothea giggled and licked her lips, her mouth dry from the recent rutting she’d done. “I know you did... it was quite brave.” Dorothea said. There was a lot for her to think about. Edelgard had done and sacrificed so much for her. 

“Here’s the thing Edie...” Dorothea said, her tone deadly serious, any hint of playfulness gone now. “I’m in love with you, and I don’t know what to do about it...” the tears were flowing again “because I’ve _never_ felt this way about _anyone_ before.” 

“Just accept it, and I promise that you won’t regret it.” Edelgard swallowed, hoping Dorothea would say it again. Dorothea licked her lips and slid herself off of Edelgard’s lap. “I love you Edie, can we take a bath together?” She smiled, wiping her own tears away. 

Edelgard laughed and stood up, grabbing Dorothea’s hand. “That sounds great.” Edelgard giggled. Dorothea turned to the table and picked up the bottle of wine, handing it to Edelgard. She then went inside of Edelgard’s jacket pocket, pulling out a box of cigarettes and a lighter she’d spied not too long ago. 

“Can we share one?” 

“Dorothea, that weirdly turns me on.” 

“Good, that means this whole thing hasn’t made me lose my touch.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeyyyy sorry for taking so long to upload a chapter, my exam times are coming up so if I go missing that’s where I’m at. 
> 
> Anyways thanks for reading and I hope everyone enjoyed, any notes or suggestions are appreciated.


	7. Winter Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dudes are all snowed in. That’s it.

Byleth was woke up by a foot kicking her in the face and the loud sound of a snore coming from the other end of where she was lying. She stretched her arms out, yawning as she sat up, the woolly blanket falling off of her as she did so.

It was _then_ that her headache kicked in.

She closed her eyes, grabbing her forehead and could feel the spinning even with her eyes closed. She peeked one open to see Manuela, bottle of wine still in hand, her legs lazily thrown over Byleth while the top half of her body was on the floor.

Maybe they shouldn’t have drank last night....

“Good morning my hungover angel~” Sothis sang, swinging out of the bedroom and into the living room where Byleth and Manuela lay. “Jeez, she hasn’t budged.” Sothis said, lightly kicking Manuela, earning only a grunt from her and her grip tightened on the bottle.

“She’s just worried about Dorothea, she’s basically her daughter.” Byleth laughed yet it almost sounded fake due to her banging headache. “Poor Manuela, almost in her forties, her more or less adopted daughter is going through a whirlwind romance, and barely any man will glance at her.”

“I think that last point is because it never ends in sex, and always something more like this.” Byleth laughed and finally stood up, lifting Manuela’s body up onto the sofa. “Where’s the dog?” Byleth asked, looking around the floor to spot the small animal.

“Still sleeping in the bedroom like a baby.” Sothis pouted, almost overwhelmed by the cute thought. Byleth smiled and slowly moved into the kitchen, leaning over the counter, fingers massaging her temples.  


Sothis followed her and pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge, sliding it across the counter. “I’ve never really appreciated how fortunate we are to have one of our friends staying in the apartment next door. It means she can get drunk wherever she pleases.” Sothis quips and looks back at Manuela, who’s arms were wrapped around the sofa cushions. 

“It’s also handy for when we can’t see the neighbours fighting from our window, so we go next door to watch.” Byleth giggled, snapping open the bottle of water and making the most blissful face as she took a drink of it. 

“God, I wish they would get a divorce but at the same time I don’t because it’s the highlight of our weekends.” Sothis said. As she turned around she watched as Manuela went to stand up, but failed, hitting the ground with an audible thud. 

“_**Fuck**_! I’ve got a **_fucking_** wedgie too!” Manuela bawled as she squirmed around on the floor. “We should probably help her...” Sothis whispered, leaning into Byleth. 

Byleth shook her head. “Just leave her, she’ll figure it out.” Manuela bounced up, stumbling as she stood. “Are you okay Manuela?” Sothis cringed, her eyes darting over Manuela’s features.

“What time is it? I need to call my daughter- _Dorothea_-“

“You know Dorothea isn’t _actually_ your daughter don’t you?” 

“**Of course I know that!**” Manuela bawled, flailing her arms around. Byleth and Sothis side eyed each other before looking back at Manuela, who was prowling around the sofa looking for something. “Where’s my phone?” Manuela groaned, grabbing at her hair and her veins practically bursting out of her forehead. 

“It’s on the table behind you.” Byleth said, gulping as she waited for Manuela’s reaction. The woman calmly turned around and picked up her phone, her nails clicking off of the screen as she typed. “Are you-“

“Calling Dorothea, and if she doesn’t answer the phone, so help me I’ll- **_UGH_**!” Manuela groaned loudly as she held the phone up to her ear, her hair ruffled from her pulling at it previously and the veins still popping out. 

Sothis flared her eyebrows and puffed her cheeks, exhaling slowly. “We actually said we’d go and pick up her and Edelgard today-“

“Well then I’m coming with you if she doesn’t answer the **GODDAMN PHONE**\- Wait, I have an idea.” Manuela said, tossing her phone onto the sofa and moving around with a new purpose. “Give me one of your phones, I’ll call her from that.” Manuela demanded, one hand on her hip searching for her baton that was evidently not there. 

“I’d prefer if you didn’t-“

“Oh! Here it is!” 

_____________________________________

Dorothea sat in Edelgard’s lap, her lips and teeth scraping against Edelgard’s own. There had been something special about the week they’d spent together; intimate. Though Dorothea felt another strange feeling, something worrisome pressed to the back of her mind. At least Edelgard’s presence grounded her.

** _BZZZZZ BZZZZZ_ **

Her phone began to vibrate again.

“Manuela, stop.” Dorothea groaned as she pulled away from Edelgard and picked up her phone, only to sit up straight and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as she inspected the unknown number. “Not her?” Edelgard asked, sitting up to press tiny kisses against the moles on her shoulder.

“No...” Dorothea murmured, hovering her thumb over the answer button apprehensively. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.” Edelgard muttered and got up, strolling into the en-suite bathroom.

Dorothea answered the phone, barely processing that she’d said ‘hello’ as she watched the bathroom door. “**DOROTHEA?! WHY AREN’T YOU ANSWERING MY CALLS!**” Manuela’s voice boomed over the phone, causing her to pull the phone away from her ear for a moment to save her hearing.

“Manuela! _What a surprise!_ You know I was pretty busy doing something...”

“Doing Edelgard more like! Next time answer the phone, I was worried about you! You just disappeared for days without a word!”

“I thought the professor would’ve told you...” Dorothea said sheepishly, still watching the bathroom door, praying Edelgard would come back already to save her from this phone call. “Well we’re coming to collect you both in a few hours, so be ready for us coming!” Manuela yelled before hanging up the phone, leaving Dorothea slightly dumbfounded.

The brunette gulped and tossed her phone to the side, quickly getting up to move over to the bathroom. It had barely been moments since Edelgard went in there, but she needed the comfort of the white haired girl.

“Edie?” Dorothea said, a slight quiver in her voice as she opened the door. She exhaled at the sight of Edelgard gently combing her hair. From the look on Edelgard’s face, she might’ve caught her tremble. “Something wrong?” Edelgard said, her voice soft and low.

“No... no. That was Manuela on the phone, she just called to see if I was safe and tell me that her and the professor were coming to pick us up in a few hours.” Dorothea said, folding her arms as she leaned against the wall.

Edelgard raised her eyebrows incredulously. “_She’s coming **here**?! In a snow storm?!_” She said, her tone one of shock and concern. “Edie, _calm down_, it’ll be fine-“

“Dorothea, there’s a _snowstorm_ outside. She’s gonna get stuck here with us and it’s gonna be my mom’s family dinner all over again.”

“It. Will. Be. Fine.” Dorothea repeated, giggling to herself as she walked further into the bathroom. Dorothea reached her hands out, wrapping them around Edelgard’s waist and leaned forward to nuzzle her face into the heiress’s shoulder.

Edelgard brought her hand up to rest on Dorothea’s back and the other to the back of her head. “What’s wrong?” Edelgard asked, quirking her eyebrow again. She felt Dorothea shake her head against her skin. “I’m fine...” The brunette said, still not pulling her head up just yet.

Edelgard furrowed her brow and tried to think what was going on with her. Probably Manuela.... ugh, this wouldn’t be fun. 

_____________________________________

Marianne sat next to her window, watching the snow hammering off of the glass and ground outside. She was fortunate enough to have one of the nicer dorms that had a floor to ceiling window, which she sat a chair next to so she could enjoy the scenery of the courtyard.

She would watch as everyone would come and go from the gazebos, students studying, eating and partying alike. Marianne was wearing one of Hilda’s hoodies, which proved to be oversized despite their height difference. It was probably because Hilda was surprisingly packed with muscle.

She looked over to the bed to see said girl, arms and legs spread out like a starfish, cuddling into the bedsheets. Marianne giggled at that, knowing if it wasn’t the bedsheets she was hugging, it would be her instead.

She looked back to the window to see a man, dressed in black, with long ginger hair spilling out of his hat, sitting at one of the gazebos. It honestly freaked her out, because he wasn’t there a moment ago and there was no telling why he was there.

Her head snapped back around to the bed when she heard rustling. Hilda has sat up, running her hand through her hair and trying to flatten her fringe that stood on end. “What’re you doing up so early...” Hilda pouted, leaning back on her hands.

“It’s only nine in the morning...”

“Yeah and that’s _way_ to early to be awake if we don’t have classes.” Hilda chuckled, rubbing her legs together like a cricket. “What’re you looking at anyway?” Hilda asked, scrambling to get back under the covers as she shivered.

“There’s a man-“ Marianne turned to see he was no longer there. “Or at least there was...”

“Out in the snow? Weird.... oh well, wanna come over and watch a movie.” Hilda dismissed Marianne’s dilemma, instead opting for a cosy time in her own bed.

“Yeah...” Marianne smiled and moved to climb back into bed. She couldn’t exactly say no to Hilda now could she?

_____________________________________

Ingrid paced back and forth in her room. She had gotten out of the shower and Sylvain wasn’t here. He wasn’t in the best state of mine lately, so anything could’ve happened to him.

She had to take action.

Ingrid stormed out of her dorm room, walking towards Felix’s room with one purpose, find her boyfriend, not boyfriend but boyfriend. The door was opened, which surprised her. What didn’t surprise her was Felix with his hands tossed behind his head, his eyes trained on his TV, whilst Annette rested herself on his chest.

“What do you want Ingrid?” Felix spat, glaring at her from the side of his eye. “Do you know where Sylvain is-“

“We’ve been lying here watching Twin Peaks for the last hour, why would we know where you’re boyfriend is.” He hissed, fully turning his head towards her now. That’s how she knew he was pissed, he turned his entire head.

“_Okay_...” Ingrid said, slowly backing out of the door.

“I hope you find him!” Annette called after her. Felix gently ran his hand through her hair. “Don’t bother with her, she’s a dick.” He said softly.

“Felix! _So mean_!”

“It’s fine, it’s just Ingrid.” 

_____________________________________

“You’ve got to be _fucking_ kidding me...” Byleth huffed, slamming her hands on the steering wheel. They’d been driving for a few hours now, fuelled by Manuela’s desperation to get to Dorothea. The car had suddenly came to a halt, stuck in the snow flood street.

Sothis leaned back into the seat and undid her seatbelt. “Why do you need to see her so badly.” Sothis said, wrapping a scarf around her neck. Manuela scoffed and turned her nose up in the back seat. “She skipped rehearsal and disappeared for a week, because of that... I can’t even come up with something to call her.”

“Great, because Edelgard is both of our students and she’s right over there.” Byleth pointed to the side of the road. Manuela’s head snapped to the window in disbelief.

Sure enough, Edelgard was walking towards the car, wrapped head to toe in many layers. “Thank god...” Sothis murmured as she opened the car door, Byleth shortly following after her. Manuela felt forced to do the same.

They followed Edelgard back across the snow and into an unmarked house, where they were all thankful for the warmth of the cabin. “Did the car break down?” Edelgard asked as she took off her jacket, hanging it up behind the door. She took the three woman’s jackets, hanging them up as well.

“No, it’s just stuck in the snow.” Byleth said, standing behind Sothis and circling her arms around her waist, pulling her close for warmth. Dorothea sat on the stairs behind Edelgard, silently staring at Manuela, who was staring back at her. “I’ll go out and try dig it out later.” Edelgard said, ruffling her hand through her hair. Edelgard led Byleth and Sothis into the living room.

The other two woman stayed staring at each other. Dorothea moved first, daring to stand up and walk past Manuela into the living room. Manuela snatches Dorothea’s arm, pulling her back slightly. “You _disappear_ without a word then you ignore me?!” Manuela hissed. Dorothea tried to tug her arm back.

“I told you where I was, I was with Edie-“

“Oh you were with Edelgard! It all makes sense now!”

“I’m fine, _you see that I’m fine_!” Dorothea quietly yelled, her eyes darting back and forth between the living room and Manuela. “What? You don’t want her to hear me?!-“

Dorothea slapped her hand over Manuela’s mouth and the older woman narrowed her eyes at her. “What’s so terrible about me not wanting my girlfriend to hear my basically adoptive mother bitching about her?!” Dorothea quietly yelled back at her.

Manuela kept her eyes narrowed at her, a clear look of disapproval, and a myriad of things she wanted to say all lying on the edge of her tongue. The only thing stopping her was Dorothea’s hand muffling any noise that would escape.

“Dorothea-“ Edelgard stopped at the door when she saw Dorothea’s hand clamped over Manuela’s mouth. “Sorry-“

“No, it’s fine Edie.” Dorothea smiled evilly at Manuela “What’d you need?”

“Ummm...” Edelgard shook her head, and decided to ignore the scene in front of her. “Would you both like tea?” She finally said. Dorothea and Manuela both nodded. With a satisfied smile, Edelgard walked back into the living room.

Manuela glared at Dorothea again. 

_____________________________________

Sylvain was staring off into space. His head completely empty, much like his stomach, evident in the way it growled for attention. He was dressed head to toe in an all black outfit.

He’d been sitting in his car watching nothing for some time now. It was possible that he’d actually forgotten he was in his car in the first place. Idle thoughts of his week plagued his mind. Nothing had happened this week after he spent the night with Ingrid-

** _TAP TAP TAP_ **

He turned to see Ingrid knocking on the car window. He unlocked the door and she quickly jumped inside.

“Jesus, it’s freezing, what’re you doing out here?” Ingrid asked as she exaggeratedly rubbed her arms from the cold. Sylvain shrugged. “Dunno.” He said, his eyes dead and fixed on the outside.

“What’s wrong with you now?!”

“Nothing... just nothing.” Sylvain said solemnly, lightly shaking his head at her. Ingrid’s eye twitched, a sign that she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “The Professor has a twin that’s the campus counsellor... I think I’m gonna book you in to see him.” Ingrid said.

Sylvain only nodded. Maybe he could use the help. 

_____________________________________

Marianne had fell asleep for god knows how long and Hilda was growing extremely bored. 

Not that she didn’t love Marianne, she did, but right in this moment Hilda realised that she’d been cuddling with Marianne for hours and her arms were starting to go dead.

And honestly.... she missed Claude.

She hadn’t heard from him and she was sure it was almost noon. Hilda’s curiosity got the better of her, she released Marianne and rolled over to grab her phone. Her arms were tingling from being lay on top of for a while but she pushed through to send Claude a text. 

**Hilda:** u ded?

**Claude**: i’m in hiding from dimitri he’s tryna make me go to the gym with him 

Hilda raised an eyebrow at her phone. 

**Hilda**: hows that a bad ting

**Claude**: coz i’ll combust from his bod

**Hilda**: sksksksksksksk bet he’s a twig

**Claude**: he’s too hot for ur tiny lesbian brain to comprehend

She began to feel an arm wrap around her waist and a small weight press against her shoulder. “What does Claude want?” Marianne asked, her words slow and laced with sleep.

“He wants tall, blonde and needs a haircut.”

“Professor Jeritza?”

Hilda burst out laughing. “N-No, he means Dimitri.” She managed to say through her giggles. Marianne smiled fondly at her when she laughed like that. It warmed her heart when her girlfriend laughed at her jokes.

Mainly because she wasn’t particularly funny.

But also, because she had such a girly, perfect laugh-

“What’re you staring at?” Hilda pouted, pressing her finger against Marianne’s nose. Marianne blushed and buried her face into Hilda’s back to hide her obvious embarrassment. Hilda giggled again and petted her hair.

Hilda missed Claude, but she knew if she were with him right now, she’d miss Marianne more.

_____________________________________

Edelgard was stuck. Well and truly stuck.

Stuck between her girlfriend and her girlfriends adoptive mother, who was also one of her professors, who also hated her. Well, neither Manuela or Dorothea had explicitly said that, but it was implied.

Edelgard felt awkward in her own home. She looked at the dining table where everyone sat, Byleth and Sothis sat across from one another, as did Dorothea and Manuela. They chatted quietly over their tea and various confectionary that Edelgard had scrounged from the cupboards.

Edelgard pinched the bridge of her nose, taking comfort in the idea of this all passing soon enough. She picked up her cup and walked over to the dining table, Dorothea gesturing for her to sit down next to her.

As soon as she sat down, Dorothea’s hand was grabbing at her own, and suddenly she regretted sitting down in the first place. Dorothea and Manuela glared at each other, Edelgard taking the brunt end of the glare from Manuela.

Edelgard cleared her throat and looked over at Byleth, her professor knowing she was about to start a conversation as soon as she looked over. “So professor, I hear your brother, Balam, is back on campus.” Edelgard said politely.

“Yes, he’s back... _bastard_...” Byleth mumbled that last part into her cup. She swallowed and made a show of sitting her cup back down. “Me and my brother aren’t on the best of terms, so him being back from... wherever he’s been, and him being so close to me daily, isn’t exactly a comforting thought.”

Edelgard nodded, not really wanting to pry any further. Manuela however, was genuinely curious about her friend. “Do you mind me asking what happened?” Manuela said softly, leaning her chin on her hand. Byleth shook her head “I shouldn’t-“

“Don’t worry professor, our lips are sealed.” Dorothea made a zipping motion with her fingers. Sothis glanced over at Byleth, almost as if it was sympathetic. Byleth sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before they fluttered open again.

“A few years ago, me and my family were having dinner, and Sothis was there because we had just started dating and we were staying for the weekend, long story short I was outed that night then I left.”

Manuela’s eyebrows perked up “And Jeralt?” She said in slight disbelief of her story. “He called the next day, Balam called the day after, and we haven’t spoke since.” Byleth shrugged, and stood up, taking her and a Sothis’ empty cups and setting them down on the countertop.

“Did Balam apologise when he called you?” Edelgard asked, idly running her hand up and down Dorothea’s arm, much to Manuela’s annoyance. “When he called he was just... rude.” Sothis answer for Byleth, knowing that this could go on for hours.

Byleth grinned as she leaned against the counter. “He said he could hear us through the walls, so I told him to take notes.” She cackled, causing Sothis to sigh and rub her temples. “It’s not funny.” She spat.

“Could’ve been you if Dimitri would’ve been in a bad mood that night at dinner.” Dorothea smirked, turning everyone’s attention to Edelgard. Edelgard merely pouted and hid her face, she didn’t want to talk about that.

Manuela sighed and flicked her eyebrows upwards. “Well at least I don’t have to worry about being outed at the dinner table.” She chuckled into her cup. Byleth and Sothis smiled at each other.

“You’re right, someone would have to want to fuck you first-“

Manuela spat her tea back into her cup and Dorothea looked slightly mortified.

_____________________________________

Claude wandered back and forth the gym, Dimitri had eventually got him to come with him but now he was... actually exercising. 

He thought it would be all ‘Claude let me show you how to...’ then his arms would be wrapped around him and Claude would be in heaven. 

But instead he was doing pull ups in the other side of the empty training room. Claude looked at the blue training mats and frowned. Usually Edelgard and a couple other people would be here training. He smirked, knowing that thanks to Edelgard’s scandal they would be alone in here for a will. 

He began walking over to Dimitri, retaining his cheeky smirk that had trouble written all over it. “Dimitri, could you teach me how to stretch properly?” Claude asked innocently. Dimitri dropped down from the bar he was hanging on and dusted his hands off. “Of course-“

** _BZZZT BZZZZZT_ **

Dimitri looked down at his phone. “Uh, just a moment Claude.” He said before walking away, his phone held tightly to his ear as he answered his call. “Hello?” Dimitri spoke, walking further and further away until he was in the hallway. 

Claude sighed and leaned his back against the wall, trying to catch a glimpse of Dimitri and what he was talking about, until the blonde boy just burst back through the door. 

“You haven’t seen Edelgard this week have you?” 

Claude paused for a moment. An odd question, but he couldn’t say he had saw her this week. At all actually... “No, now that I think about it.” Claude said. Dimitri sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Well, her mother called because she’s been trying to call her all week and hasn’t been able to find her.” Dimitri stormed over to the bench and grabbed his jacket. 

“Where are you going?-“

“To my stepmothers.”

“But it’s a snowstorm-“ Dimitri began quickly walking out of the room “hey slow down, I’m coming with you!”

_____________________________________

“Isn’t your tea cold?”

“No, isn’t your coffee cold?”

“No, did you put sugar in-“

Ferdinand and Hubert went back and forth, answering everything question with a question. Truly, they had peaked boredom. Like everyone else, they’d been stuck in from the snowstorm, but refused to not go about their daily routine like normal. 

So here they were, having their weekly tea party. Or tea and coffee party with hundreds of cakes that only really Ferdinand ate.

“Don’t you find the snow so pleasant? Such a dainty little thing yet it shows such beauty does it not?” Ferdinand prattled on, his eyes fixed on the window which was covered in a sheet of shite. Only small spots showed the outside world. 

“Yes, it’s quite nice.” 

......silence. Perfection. For Hubert at least. 

“What are you doing for Christmas?” Ferdinand asked, seemingly out of the blue. Hubert raised his eyebrows “I was spending it alone, and I would probably see Edelgard at some point.” 

Ferdinand’s face lit up excitedly. “My father is going to be out of town for business, perhaps we could spend Christmas together!” If Ferdinand had a tail, it would be wagging. Hubert looked away with a small blush. 

“Of course, I have no objections to it.” He said. 

“Excellent, I make a terrific turkey!” 

_____________________________________

** _BZZZZT BZZZZT _ **

Edelgard rushed to her room, she hadn’t known it was upstairs. She was a little ashamed because she might have some missed calls. 

**Dimitri (32)**

**Mother (80)**

Edelgard made sure to delete her mother’s notifications before swiping on Dimitri’s. She liked Dimitri enough for her to call him back, her mother was... she wasn’t ready to talk to her at all.

“Dima, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?! Where have you been?!” He boomed across the phone, Edelgard felt a twinge of guilt.

“Me and Dorothea are staying in my fathers cabin this week, we’ll be back when the snowstorms over.” She heard a small ruckus in the background and Dimitri sigh in relief. “Well at least you’re safe.” He said quietly.

“Uh- you’re mother wants to speak with you-“

“Dimitri don’t you dare pass that phone to her!”

“**_EDELGARD_**!” Her mother’s familiar voice screeched through the speakers on her phone, causing her to move the phone away from her face, wincing in pain from the volume that the woman had screamed at.

“**_What?!_**” Edelgard barked, she could head her mother gasping at her. “Don’t take that tone with me El! When are you going to stop ignoring me and come home!”

“You told me not to come home!”

“I never thought for a moment you’d actually never come home!”

Edelgard paused and took a breath, she needed to centre herself, she needed something to ground her. She felt arms wrap around her waist, she felt a small kiss to her cheek, she knew Dorothea was there.

“Mom I have to go...” she mumbled, that was the right thing to say. “You’re coming to Christmas-“

“No I’m not-“

“**_Dimitri_**, bring her to Christmas at our house-“

The line went dead.

Edelgard had hung up and tossed her phone onto the bed. Basking in the warmth of Dorothea who was pressed against her. Dorothea reached down and took her hand, pulling her out of the room, guiding her downstairs.

Edelgard would never object to that.

“The professor and Sothis went to bed, but me, you and Manuela can watch a movie.”

However, she would object to that with a long groan. 

_____________________________________

Claude sat in the living room, hearing the loud noises of Edelgard’s mother screeching profanities and Dimitri’s own voice just as loud as hers, trying to defend Edelgard and calm his step-mother.

Truly, a very functional and happy family.

Claude rolled his eyes as he scrolled through his Snapchat stories. Honestly, why was it that no one could post anything interesting. Sylvain; picture of him and Ingrid, Felix; picture of him and Annette, Hilda; picture of Marianne and a horse plushie-

He smirked however when he got to Edelgard’s story. It was her private, which meant being in it meant a exclusive look into her life. She’d posted a picture of her rolling her eyes with the caption “Why do mothers hate me?”

“Patricia, she’s spending time with her girlfriend-“

“That’s all she ever does! I just want to talk to her!”

** _CRASH!_ **

Claude watched as Patricias phone smacked off of the fireplace, glass flying everywhere as she smashed a picture frame along with the screen on her phone.

And before Claude knew it, Dimitri was ushering him out of the apartment and back into his car, both of them sitting in silence whilst Dimitri reversed out of his parking spot. 

“Your stepmother seems lovely. A very stable woman.”

“I’d call her emotionally challenged.”

“Well... her daughter is fucking crazy, you can’t blame her.” 

_____________________________________

** _THUMP! THUMP! THUMP-_ **

That was the last straw, Marianne couldn’t take it anymore. Sure, she was shy, anxious and extremely quiet, but when she was pissed off, she was pissed of.

“Hilda, you’re making a _mess_.” Marianne said, moving to pick up the clothing that Hilda was tossing on the floor behind her. Hilda had decided to clear out her wardrobe. Even though she couldn’t throw anything out because there was a snowstorm outside so it would just lie in her room.

“Mari, when you’re trapped in your own bedroom with your girlfriend for _who knows how long_, you have two options.” Hilda swivelled around and held her index finger up “A _TON_ of sex-“ Marianne blushed, then Hilda’s middle finger joined her index “Or clean out your room.”

Marianne sighed and giggled slightly, moving over to the wardrobe, both of them going through her wardrobe, cleaning everything out. Marianne kneeled down, now sorting through the shoeboxes. She reached for an unmarked box, which was odd because all of Hilda’s shoes were branded so they came with a branded box.

As she was about to open the box to check the contents, Hilda leaned over and snatched the box out from under her.

“U-Uh, this is an option one, kinda box.” She gulped and blushed furiously, as did Marianne. 

Both of them went along with cleaning out the room, but a part of Marianne was curious about the box. 

_____________________________________

Dorothea felt comfortable and awkward at the same time. Every few moments she glanced over to see Manuela either still watching the movie, texting on her phone, or scowling at Edelgard, that made her feel awkward.

But Edelgard, her sweet Edie, made her feel comfortable. Edelgard had one arm wrapped around her whilst she leaned her head on the other one. But Edelgard had her eyes shut and was presumably asleep. It was adorable to watch and Dorothea couldn’t help but feel at ease by it.

She turned and gently rubbed her hand up Edelgard’s arm, shaking her slightly. Edelgard grunted and cracked one eye open.“You can go to bed if you’d like Edie.” She smiled softly, stroking her girlfriends cheek. Edelgard shook her head “No it’s fine, I’ll stay here with you.” she mumbled. Dorothea heard Manuela mutter something in the background.

Edelgard’s eyes fluttered open and she sat up, wrapping her arms around Dorothea and pressing soft kisses to her cheek. She was trying to wake up. “You know I’m sitting here don’t you?” Manuela said, swirling the wine in her glass as she scowled.

Edelgard raised her eyebrows. “What’ve I done?” She said, genuinely curious. Manuela scoffed “Your hands practically down Dorothea’s pants and I’m a little less than a foot away.” Manuela growled. Although both girls were confused, but Edelgard tried to handle it as best as she could.

“Well... I’m just gonna go go bed and let you two enjoy the rest of the movie.” She said quietly, her voice husky from just waking up. “That’s right, keep that sort of stuff for when you’re alone.” Manuela twirled her finger in the air at Dorothea and Edelgard.

Edelgard had to stop herself from saying anything as she stood up. Dorothea shook her head “Edie I’m coming with you.” She said, moving to sit up as well. Edelgard smiled softly and shook her head as well “It’s fine, I’ll see you soon.” She gently squeezed Dorothea’s shoulder as she walked around the back of the couch before disappearing into the hallway.

“I know you’re not all that fond of her-“

“But?”

“She’s my girlfriend, and I wish you’d at least pretend to like her.” Dorothea’s eyes flitted to Manuela’s cup “What are you drinking?”

“Let’s not start that... fine, I’ll tolerate her.” Manuela conceded, not really wanting to give up the contents of her cup. Dorothea smiled brightly. “Really? You’re not just saying that?”

“I’m not just saying that, in fact, we can all have Christmas together-“

Dorothea nearly knocked the glass out of Manuela’s hand from the force of her flinging her arms around her. Manuela smiled and hugged her back. She didn’t actually know how much this must’ve meant to Dorothea. “You can go to bed if you’d like...” Manuela sighed.

Dorothea pulled away, still smiling and took off upstairs after Edelgard.

Manuela wondered just what she’d agreed to.

_____________________________________

Annette was giggling as she scrolled through her phone, showing Felix pictures from when she was young. Felix looked amused looking at them as well.

“And here’s one of me and my dad, I haven’t seen him since that age really.” Annette admitted sheepishly, feeling she needed to mention that fairly important detail. “He kinda looks like that guy I saw sitting outside.” Felix snickered.

Annette paused for a moment. She didn’t like to think that her father had suddenly reappeared. Something was making her feel a little uneasy. Felix raised an eyebrow at her “Earth to Annette,” he waved his hand in front of her “You okay?”

She nodded “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Oh, I forgot to ask but...” Felix trailed off as he stretched over and grabbed his phone. “I’m being forced to go to Dimitri’s place for Christmas, do you wanna come?” He smiled, albeit it was barely a smile as it was Felix.

“Yeah! I have nothing to do this year and I _looove_ Christmas!” She exclaimed excitedly. He nodded as he began texting on his phone. “It’s settled then, my Christmas might be pretty good this year then...” he murmured.

“Y’know Felix,” Annette rolled over to face him with a teasing grin “For someone who acts all tough, you’re a big softie.” She poked his nose with her finger. He chuckled and swatted her hand away “Can’t I be both?”

She pouted “No, you can be soft, watch movies all day Felix, or ‘Grrr I want to kill Sylvain and Dimitri’ Felix.” He laughed and pretended to be in thought. “Do I have to choose?”

“Yes.”

“Then no-“

“That’s not the rules!”

“I don’t use rules.” He pouted and turned his head away. Annette rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at him, only for him to throw it back. Yet as fun as this was, her mind kept wandering to her dad... maybe she could ask Dimitri’s dad at Christmas. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, I’m late af. And yes, I’m doing a Christmas chapter in January, like an asshole. But I hope everyone enjoyed! and I take any and all criticism.


	8. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Christmas chapter... in January... it’s not as unlikely as you’d think.

Hilda was so glad that they were no longer snowed in. But it was Christmas and she was stuck at campus due to half of her family either going on vacation or being on business trips. So she was spending it with her other family. Claude and Marianne.

“So... _where_ is Marianne anyway?” Claude asked, kicking his feet up onto the table, which Hilda then shooed his feet off of. “She has to go see her father first, but she’ll be here later, so we need to starve till then.” Hilda chuckled and looked out the window.

She had rented an apartment for the week, the landlord assumed she was having a Christmas party, but no she was spending Christmas here then having a New Year’s Eve party, stupid landlord should get it right next time!

“Isn’t it kind of a bummer that you’re stuck here for Christmas?” Hilda cringed, folding her arms as she leaned against the expensive looking windowsill. “Not really, it just means me and you can get drunk as hell tonight.” He smirked and reached forward for the bottle of wine on the table, which Hilda then smacked his hand away.

“Marianne’s not gonna be here for _ages_-“

“_I don’t care_, go take a beer from the fridge like me!”

“Ugh, you’re so difficult.” He grumbled as he plodded into the kitchen, the sound of a fridge opening and bottles clanging filling the house. Claude nodded at her as he cracked off the bottle cap with his teeth. “_What_?” Hilda asked, catching the cap her threw at her.

“What’s with the outfit?” Claude gestured to what she was wearing. Hilda looking down at her dress, it was black, tight, sparkly and showed off her cleavage. She pouted at him “What about it?”

He chuckled “Yeah well it’s nice, but it’s just us three here for Christmas...” he said awkwardly. “Because I like to look nice, at all times, the paparazzi could burst through that door at any minute Claude.” Hilda said, looking almost too serious about it.

“Yeah but I look good all the time, so I don’t need to worry.”

** _THWAP_ **

Hilda threw a pillow at him, Claude barely catching it before spilling his beer. “Why didn’t you go over to Dimitri’s for Christmas instead?” Hilda raised her eyebrow at him, taking a sip from her beer while she waited for him to answer. Claude’s eyes widened “That families fucking crazy.”

“_Ohhh_, what’s the tea then?”

“_First of all_, Edelgard and her mother’s ongoing battle, then Dimitri’s caught in the middle, _THEN_ like half the people we know are going and bringing _their_ families. So yeah, it’ll be fucking crazy in his house.”

Hilda laughed and looked to be in thought. “I wonder what the professors up to...”

* * *

“So will you at least _try_ and get along with him when he gets here?” 

“Dad, he’s a dick-“

“**_Please_**.” 

“Fine...” Byleth conceded, mindlessly chopping away at vegetables and putting them in the soup pot. Balam was coming for Christmas. Byleth didn’t know who’s great fucking idea that was and she really wanted Sothis to hurry so she wouldn’t need to put up with it alone. 

Jeralt put the finishing touches on the pie before placing it in the oven, along with several other things. “When is Balam supposed to get here?” Byleth asked, leaning against the kitchen counter and stirring the pot of soup. “In a few minutes,” Jeralt walked over and took over the stirring “you can put the cutlery down, I’ll finish this up.” 

Byleth did as she was told, grabbing as much cutlery as she could and began setting it down at the table, knife, fork, spoon, other spoon and straw. Well, the straw was only for Jeralt, as a joke because they like to call him an old man. 

The door clicked open, and there he was, Balam was now sporting green hair that matched Rhea’s, it was ugly... 

“Did you choose to get that colour or did you just fuck up with your dye?-“

“_**Byleth**_!”

“No, I dyed it this colour...” Balam pouted “Are you still mad at me?”

“Well I’m not allowed to be today because it’s Christmas.” She pouted back. Balam laughed and took off his jacket, setting it over the banister before sitting himself down at the dinner table. “Are you still dating...” he trailed off. 

“Sothis.”

“Yes, that’s her name, so are you?” He asked, resting his head on his hand. Byleth nodded “Yeah, she moved in with me last year, and we have a dog.” She sighed, sitting down across him him. Balam raised an eyebrow at her quizzically. 

“Is she coming or is she with her family?” 

“No, she’s coming-“ 

**PING**

Byleth flashed her eyebrows and picked up her phone; it was a text from Sothis. 

**Sothis:** Would it be alright if I brought Rhea?  
yeah that’s fine

**Byleth:** Yeah that’s fine

“_Aaand_ now she’s bringing her sister...” Byleth sighed again, rubbing her forehead. Balam giggled “You don’t look all too pleased about that.” He said. Byleth nodded her head in agreement “Let’s just say, I’m almost certain her sister wants to fuck me, and it weirds me out.”

Balam furrowed his brow and frowned before a sudden flash of inspiration washed over him. “How about this, I’ll make it up to you by making sure she barely flirts with you all night.” He smirked devilishly. Byleth smirked back “Okay, but only because you offered... and you do owe me.”

Jeralt watched them from the kitchen, mildly worried but also happy that they seemed to be getting along.

* * *

Ferdinand sat at the small table in Hubert’s dorm room. They had to be two of the only people that were still on campus, but that did t at all bother them, they enjoyed each other’s company. 

Hubert pulled a bottle out of a large brown box and cradled it in his hands. “_Ohoho_, what fine vodka is it this time?” Ferdinand said, leaning forward on his hand, practically on the edge of his seat. 

Hubert spun the bottle in his hands and looked at the label. He squinted his eyes “Platinum” he read out aloud. Hubert quirked his eyebrows upwards before taking a few steps forward, cracking open the bottle and pouring a glass for himself and Ferdinand. 

For Christmas, they had decided that dinner and tasting collections of alcohol was what they were going to do. 

Hubert sat, enjoying the silence, sipping at his glass. “You know Ferdinand, today has been rather nice.” Hubert said, before sniffing. He began nodding to himself and took another sip from his glass. Ferdinand nodded at him and took a sip as well. 

“I think this vodka has been the best so far from this collection.” Ferdinand nodded and tapped on his glass. “Yes, definitely.” Hubert smiled before finishing his glass in one gulp. Ferdinand laughed and readjusted himself in his chair. “Should we write it down as one to buy?” 

“Definitely.” Hubert said, cracking his neck as Ferdinand wrote down the name on the bottle, albeit shakily due to him being quite tipsy from the previous wine collection. Ferdinand began giggling hysterically to himself before grabbing the bottle.

“I’m gonna pour myself another glass, because _I don’t give a hoot_.”

Hubert sucked in a breath through his mouth, how daring of Ferdinand.

It had been a wild day. 

* * *

Christmas with Manuela was... not as painful as they all thought it would be.

They were all semi-quietly eating dinner, whilst the tv blared in the background, and Dorothea guzzled her wine as if it was juice. Edelgard had agreed to drive and well... that was that. Manuela wasn’t much better, practically knocking back a bottle at a time.

Edelgard smirked to herself, at least she knew where Dorothea learned how to drink so much so quickly.

“How long have you two been dating again?” Manuela asked through a mouthful of whatever she was eating. “Umm.. I think it’s almost a year.” Edelgard said, looking to be in thought as she swirled her tongue over her teeth. Dorothea held her finger up and looked at her phone, before looking to be in thought like Edelgard.

“Eleven months and sixteen days.” She said, before setting her phone back down. Edelgard giggled and beamed up at her “You remember the exact date?” She asked. Dorothea’s insides did a backflip. “Yup, because we were at Lorenz’s sorority party-“ 

“I’m sorry I asked-“

“And you accidentally drank one of Claude’s cocktails.” Dorothea began laughing. Edelgard buried her face in her hands, although the night was hazy at first, she could now remember every excruciating detail that came after Claude’s drink. “What happened?” Manuela chuckled in confusion.

“She drank one of Claude’s cocktails by accident, but Claude likes to mix a lot of drinks together to make something tasty yet lethal.” Dorothea wagged her finger in the air like a wand, Manuela listened intently. “So naturally, after Edelgard drank it, I had to help her to one of the rooms so she wouldn’t collapse, and then she asked me out.”

“How... _unconventional_.” Manuela half smirked, trying not to say anything insulting. Dorothea smiled wistfully down at her glass as she swirled her finger around the rim. “But, even though she had already asked me, she took me out on a real date and asked again.”

Edelgard bashfully smiled and looked away with a blush on her face. Manuela raised an eyebrow and smiled, previously underwhelmed by Dorothea’s story but now... there was some promise. “Well, that’s definitely nicer than asking her blackout drunk.” Manuela smirked. “Yeah...” Edelgard giggled, her voice sounding small.

“Stop acting shy, usually you’re all loud, proud and confident!” Dorothea laughed pouting over at Edelgard. “I’m still embarrassed that I drank one of Claude’s cocktails, even on accident.” Edelgard managed to say through her increasingly tightening chest.

Dorothea chuckled and smiled at her softly. For a moment, Edelgard thought she was melting, because it wasn’t her usual bright and cheery smile. No, it was different, it was dreamy and loving... Dorothea rarely smiled like that. The brunette and Manuela got to chatting and began to open another bottle of wine which gave Edelgard a chance to check her phone.

**Dimitri**: Would you mind stopping by for a few minutes later. You will have to talk to you’re mother eventually.

Edelgard sighed.

**Edelgard**: since it’s christmas...

Well, at least she knew where she was going next. 

* * *

“SO RODRIGUE, IS GLENN WELL?”

“OH, YES, HE’S OFF ON VACATION-“

“Why are _both of you_ shouting?” Dimitri asked, looking between his and Felix’s father. Lambert bashfully rubbed the back of his neck “I wasn’t that loud...” Patricia paused and looked up at him from her plate. 

“No you’re right, you weren’t that loud,” Felix said politely before pointing at his father “he on the other hand, was _screaming_.” Rodrigue looked appalled, whilst everyone else laughed. Annette slapped Felix on the thigh, which was a sign for him to stop making fun of his father. 

Annette began absently began cutting her turkey on her plate, too full to actually eat anymore. Felix sighed and leaned into her side. “I wanna leave...” he mumbled, causing Annette to chuckle. “Just another little while.” She giggled and stroked his arm.

“Who knew Felix was one for PDA...” Sylvain said teasingly, leaning on his wrist with a wink. Felix growled and sat up straight “Why’re you even here?” He said, stuffing food in his mouth so he wouldn’t have to reply quickly.

“Because my family are toxic and I need to... feel better.”

“_Fascinating_, don’t tell me anymore.”

“Felix, don’t be rude.” Rodrigue snapped, physically pulling himself out of his conversation with Lambert to reprimand his son. Dimitri looked over at Felix apologetically. “Is Edelgard-“

“She’ll be coming later, please don’t bother her.” Dimitri sighed, growing tired of Patricia’s constant asking questions about her daughter. Questions that Dimitri usually has no idea how to answer. Felix almost felt sorry for him.

_Almost_.

“See that Felix, he was honest and respectful, that’s what you call manners.”

Felix shot up and took off down the hallway, god knows where he was going. Sylvain and Annette looked between each other before excusing themselves and going after Felix.

The three of them ended up in the bathroom. Sylvain was checking his hair in the mirror, Felix pacing back and forth, his hands balled into fists and Annette idly sitting on the edge of the bathtub, wanting to go home.

“Felix, why don’t we just go home, we don’t need to stay if you’re gonna burst a blood vessel.” Annette giggled, her eyes flicking to the door to double check it was locked. “I’d love to, but I said I’d wait until Ingrid gets here and I’m not gonna go back on my word.” Felix growled, still pacing back and forth.

Sylvain spun around and ran his hand through his hair, almost as if he was in an advert for a clothing brand. “Well, my lovely Ingrid should be here anytime now, so it won’t be long until you can escape.” Sylvain smirked charmingly.

Felix shook his head. “Why’re you so happy? The other day you were the pinnacle of depression.” Felix spat, although it was obvious he had only said it in the moment. “Because I don’t need to see my family on Christmas or New Years, it’s truly a miracle.” Sylvain continued to smile.

** _DING!_ **

They all sighed in relief at the doorbell ringing, it was probably Ingrid, which meant they could leave soon. Annette sighed and stood up, cuddling into Felix’s arm, and pressing a kiss to his jaw. She couldn’t quite reach his cheek so... his jaw would do.

He kissed her forehead and glared at Sylvain who was idly watching this all. “_Please_, pretend I’m not here.” Sylvain grinned. Annette figures that Sylvain is the Cheshire Cat in another life. Felix rolls his eyes and gestures for the ginger haired boy to open the door, which he does.

Sylvain leads the charge down the hallway, before stopping dead in confusion as he gets halfway into the room. Felix and Annette look at each other in confusion, Felix’s hand still protectively wrapped around her waist.

Annette’s heart dropped when she saw who was standing there. The ginger man that she kept seeing on campus...

“_Dad?!_” She yelped, feeling like she could pass out at any moment. The man looked just as baffled as her. “_Annette?!_” He yelped back, although his voice wasn’t as high pitched.

Felix immediately scowled at the man after what she had told him. Also turning up announced to a place he had no business in being. “You... didn’t know each other were coming?” Dimitri said, him and Lambert looking between each other then back at Annette. Annette shook her head, knowing almost mimicking Felix’s anger “Dimitri, I haven’t spoke to him since middle school!”

“So... you didn’t know he’s the new security at Garreg Mach?”

_ **DING!** _

“_Hey everyone!_-“ Ingrid looked between the extremely tense scene, the bottle of champagne in her hands now seemed underwhelming “did I miss something?”

Sylvain shook his head and led her into the kitchen, Patricia following after them to get out of the awkward situation. Felix sighed and Annette looked up at him “We can leave now.” She said sadly. Felix nodded and let Annette lead him by the hand.

“Wait, you aren’t even going to talk to me?”

“I don’t have anything to say to you right now.” Annette growled, Felix staring daggers at him as she spoke, much to the dismay of her father. Annette dragged Felix out of the apartment, leaving her father standing there.

“Suppose we just have your sisters drama now.” Lambert said before clearing his throat, him and Dimitri going ahead and finishing their turkey. 

* * *

Balam and Byleth were locked in a stare off as they ate their food, which admittedly freaked out Sothis, who seemed to be the only one who had noticed this. She leaned into Byleth’s ear “Babe, _what’re_ you doing?” She whispered.

Byleth cleared her throat and broke eye contact with Balam and turned to Sothis, him doing the same thing with Rhea. However, Sothis wasn’t an idiot and immediately caught on. “_What’ve you agreed to?_” Sothis hissed, almost too harshly.

“He said he was going to make it up to me by keeping Rhea from flirting with me tonight-“

“Byleth it’s _Christmas_, show some _compassion_.”

“I kind of helped set up dinner, I’m all out of compassion.” Byleth shrugged. Sothis giggled and rolled her eyes before going back to finishing her meal. Balam eyeballed them both for a moment before Rhea got a phone call on her phone and excused herself.

Balam dipped back in his chair and threw his thumb in the direction she left “Is there something wrong?” He asked. Sothis nodded her head “She’s supposed to be going out with her friend Catherine, who’s now picking her up from here.” She sighed “Sorry Jeralt, I didn’t really want to bring her.”

Jeralt smiled, a toothpick hanging between his teeth “Don’t worry about it, no one else was gonna eat this food.” Balam pouted, which probably meant he disagreed. Rhea walked back in with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but I’ll be going now, is that alright?-“

“That’s fine.”

“O-Oh, okay, I’ll see you all later.”

The door slammed shut behind Rhea as she left.

They all let out a small sigh and the twins began to clean away the plates, sliding any leftovers into a bowl for the dog to feast on. Jeralt stumbled like an old man into the living room, resting himself down on the sofa whilst Sothis joined in on the cleaning up.

“Are you going back to being mad at me now that Christmas is over.” Balam commented as he passed by Byleth, dumping dishes into the sink. “No, that takes more energy than it’s worth now that you’re gonna be around.” She looked at him and cringed “You could dye your hair a different colour-“

“What is so wrong about my hair?!” He said, utterly flabbergasted. Byleth continued to cringe and shrugged “It’s just... _bright_.” She giggled, Sothis giggling along with her. Balam pouted as he went into the living room with Jeralt, leaving Sothis and Byleth in the kitchen.

Byleth sauntered over, wrapping her arms around Sothis’ waist, only for her to throw her arms around Byleth’s neck. “Was today as bad as you’d thought it’d be?” Sothis grinned and cocked her head to the side. Byleth giggled and looked down shyly “No, it was oddly nice.” 

Sothis leaned forward, pressing her hand against Byleth’s chest and their lips together, before pulling apart looking rather confused. “What’s going on with your heart? Did you take your medication?” She said, concerned. Byleth chuckled and looked down “Yeah, I took it this morning when you reminded me, but...” she gulped.

Sothis’ smile dropped, looking more concerned than anything now as she looked over her girlfriend. “What’s going on?” She asked, cupping Byleth’s cheek and running her thumb down her jawline. Byleth cleared her throat and kneeled down, starting to reach into her pocket.

Oh... Ohhhhh-

Sothis began laughing hysterically, partly because she was nervous now she knew what was happening, and also because she knew Byleth would complain about her bad back. Byleth held a silver ring, littered with amethyst, glittering in the dingy light of the kitchen.

“Will you marry me?”

“_Yes_! Please, just get up before my face starts going red.” Sothis giggled and Byleth stood back up, leaning in to kiss her, which started off gently but ended up being rougher than she had intended. Sothis pulled back, barely centimetres away from her and leaned their foreheads together.

Byleth glanced towards her hand, slipping the ring on, whilst they giggled at each other. Before they slipped into the living room, picking up the dog. “We’re engaged-“

“_**What?!**_” Jeralt screeched, spinning around and practically spinning the whole sofa with him. Sothis held up her hand, showing off her ring. “_**Why didn’t you do it in here?!**_” Jeralt yelped. Clearly he wanted to be a part of this.

“Does this mean I get to be the best man.” Balam said excitedly. Byleth grinned half heartedly “I’ll think about it...”

* * *

Edelgard had to withhold her smile as she helped a fairly drunk Dorothea into the car. Which was hilarious but they had to go to her mothers and... she would just have to improvise.

“You’re so sweet all the time y’know that...”

“That’s not true.” Edelgard said bluntly, laughing as she rested herself against the seat for a moment. She turned to face Dorothea, who was smiling the same way as she was before, and that melted her heart every time. “I love you...” Edelgard said, almost in a whisper.

“Y’know, for the longest time, I was really scared of that.”

“Of... me saying that I love you?”

“Yeah, because... what if I break your heart- what if you break _my_ heart...” Dorothea trailed off and smiled sadly now “I don’t know, that’s just what I thought.”

“Well, I won’t, I promise.” Edelgard said, reaching her hand over to rub her leg reassuringly. Which surely wasn’t the most romantic thing but it seemed to do the trick.

They drove to Edelgard’s mothers apartment, Edelgard opting to hold Dorothea by the waist so she wouldn’t stumble or fall as they got in there. The apartment was weirdly... empty.

“_Hello?_” She called out as she opened the door, Dorothea clinging onto her as they went. Dimitri sprang out of nowhere and charged towards them, holding his arms out, before wrapping them both in a bear hug.

“Dorothea, you smell like a freshly opened bottle of wine?”

“That’s because she’s drank several bottles of wine.” Edelgard smiled crookedly. Dorothea held her hands up in front of her “Guilty.” She immediately gripped back onto Edelgard.

Then Patricia rounded the corner, still in her outfit that she had been wearing earlier. She sighed and waved, before walking into the living room. Edelgard raised an eyebrow at Dimitri, expecting an explanation.

“It’s been a... trying day to say the least.” He rubbed the back of his head and began walking backwards “Come, let’s have some drinks before you leave again.” He smiled.

“Oh? What are we drinking?” Dorothea smiled her usual dazzling smile, whilst Edelgard shook her head. “No, _no, _you’re done drinking for tonight.” The white haired girl chuckled as she guided her into the loving room.

It would be an odd assumption to assume that Edelgard was calm and composed right now as she was going to face her mother after weeks of ignoring her and pissing her off.

Yet it wouldn’t be a wrong assumption.

For whatever reason, she felt very calm, not a twinge of a nerve. She held Dorothea’s waist firmly, the brunette nuzzling her face in Edelgard’s neck as they walked; she was drunk and tired. Dimitri walked on ahead of them as Edelgard sat Dorothea down at one of the stools at the countertop.

The brunette was making a show of holding on to Edelgard’s shoulder and giggling hysterically, the white haired girl couldn’t help but crack a smile as well. “I shouldn’t have drank this much.” Dorothea grumbled.

Edelgard laughed and ran her hand down Dorothea’s arm. “It’ll be fine... the hangover won’t be but, _y’know_.” She laughed, drawing a laugh from Dorothea. “Your bluntness is a skill.” The brunette laughed, leaning forward to place a chaste kiss on Edelgard’s lips, immediately pulling away once she heard footsteps nearing them.

Edelgard pulled back and glanced over to see Patricia walking towards them, a tiny smile on her face. “Merry Christmas...” she said lowly, her voice barely a murmur. Edelgard sighed and her resolve broke, she took a few steps forward and hugged her. “Merry Christmas...” Edelgard said back.

“I’m sorry- for everything that I said, I just want you to be happy.” Patricia said as she pulled back and Edelgard raised her eyebrow at her. “_I’am_ happy...” Edelgard said, blushing slightly because that was the first time she admitted that she was actually happy.

“But I’m not going to apologise-“

“I raised you, I know you aren’t going to apologise.”

Edelgard laughed and looked down at her feet, an odd silence washing over them. “Dorothea... I don’t think we’ve actually met.” Patricia said, sighing as she felt relieved at the loss of tension in her shoulders. “Well it’s nice to finally meet you!” Dorothea beamed, trying to seem as nice as possible.

Edelgard chuckled and smirked at Dorothea “It’s just a shame you’re hammered-“

“I blame it on you! You could’ve stopped me!”

“Manuela would’ve killed me.” Edelgard laughed. Patricia smiled lightly between the two. “Have you seen Hubert today?” Patricia asked the two of them, knowing that at least one of them would answer her. Dorothea shook her head. “No, I think he’s spending Christmas with Ferdinand.” Dorothea said.

“The worlds most boring couple...” Edelgard grumbled as she held her hand out for Dorothea to grab onto, pulling herself off of the stool and gripping onto Edelgard’s shoulder. “Aren’t you two staying for a little while longer?” Patricia asked. “You could both stay if you like.”

Edelgard and Dorothea shared a look before Edelgard whipped her head around to her mother again. “It’s fine, we’ll come back before new year though.” She said, reaching her hand out for Dorothea to grab onto as she stood up off of the stool.

Patricia nodded silently. Edelgard couldn’t really tell what she was thinking. Dorothea gripped onto Edelgard’s arm for support, suddenly grateful for Edelgard being quite built from her fencing training.

“We should be going, but...” Edelgard trailed off for a second “I’ll call you.” Dorothea smiled fondly at her, unbeknownst to Edelgard. The two girls turned to leave, Dorothea twisted around as they got to the door “It was nice to meet you!” She exclaimed, staggering slightly. 

“And you too.” Patricia said, before closing the door on them.

The two girls began walking faster. Edelgard whipped her head around “Today went really well-“

“_I know_!”

* * *

Claude and Marianne were sitting at the dinner table. They had dinner fairly late (due to Marianne being very late) so now they were just drinking everything that Hilda had available to her. 

But clearly, Marianne was frustrated. Judging by the light blush on her face and the small pout she was wearing whilst glaring at Hilda. Claude had assumed that she was frustrated about something. 

Hilda spun slowly in a circle, singing, hand that gripped her beer bottle in the air, her eyes screwed shut as she belted out an out of tune note. 

Marianne shuffled uncomfortably, tapping her nails off of her wine glass. Okay. Something was clearly bothering her and Hilda was too drunk to see that. 

Claude leaned into her and whispered “What’s up, you just keep pouting and staring.” 

Marianne flashed him a look, before gesturing for him to look down. Which he did, and only saw Marianne’s legs. As usual she was covering her legs with tights so that wasn’t anything unusual- wait. 

“Ohhhhh I see it.” 

“_Marianne dance with me~_” Hilda sang. 

Claude sighed and leaned into Marianne “Okay, here’s what you do. Walk over, dance with her, and let her touch-“

“Claude... please stop coaching me...” Marianne blushed uncontrollably. Before sauntering over to Hilda, letting Hilda loosely wrap her arms around her, Marianne now worried that they’d both drop their drinks and stain the carpet. 

“Okay, I’m gonna take off-“

“_Bye bitch!_” Hilda screeched. Claude laughed before leaving, the door clacking shut behind him. Hilda sighed nuzzled her face into the space between Marianne’s neck and her shoulder, pressing small kisses on her neck. 

Marianne took a deep breath and took hold of one of Hilda’s hands, slowly trailing it down to her thigh. Hilda suddenly went stiff. 

“Marianne... is that what I think it is?” 

“Yes...” 

“And it’s- it’s the _full_ set?”

“Yes...”

“_God_, you should’ve said so sooner!” Hilda squealed excitedly, tossing her beer haphazardly onto the table and dragging Marianne by the hand into the bedroom. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading and being super patient with me and my slow ass writing process. I’ve been watching rwby in my downtime and y’know... once again anime has took over my life. 
> 
> Anyways any criticism is welcome, thanks again for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks everyone for reading, I hope you're enjoying this so far because I’m enjoying writing it. 
> 
> Shid about to go up and down and all around but I hope it’s great. Feedback would be amazing!


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